The Spring of Russian E-commerce - An exclusive global perspectives series

Category: Analysis

Global software, games and consumer electronics companies target Russia

By East-West Digital News / May 17, 2012

Digital River, a US-based software company, has just released a survey of 250 companies across Asia, Europe, North America and emerging countries – including Brazil and India – which operate in the software, gaming software and consumer electronics sectors and generate annual global revenues of $250 million or more.

Russia came out on top of the list of countries where such companies are seeking to expand internationally in the next two years. Russia was named by 31% of the respondents, followed by Brazil (24%), China (23%), India (22%), Japan (22%), Germany (21%) and the United Kingdom (16%).

Click-and-mortar concepts gain traction among Russian retailers

Part of a Global Perspectives Series on Russian e-commerce offered by East-West Digital News / May 02, 2012

M.Video, a leading consumer electronics retailer, will open a network of outlets in Russian cities of less than 150,000 inhabitants, Telecom Daily reported last week. The limited-surface outlets will extend their restricted on-site assortment through POS electronic terminals that provide local customers with access to the retailer’s full catalog.

The first outlet of this type will open this summer, M.Video’s press service announced, with plans to deploy 35 similar sites across the country by the end of the year. The firm will invest some 35-40 million rubles ($1.2-$1.4 million) for each outlet, compared to 50 million rubles ($1.7 million) for a standard store.

Report: M&A in the Russian communications and media sector in 2011 and early 2012

By Vyacheslav Jaravine, KPMG / Apr 30, 2012 / 1 Comment

2011 was a rather disappointing year for M&A both globally and in Russia. Compared to the 6% decline in the value of global M&A deals, Russia’s M&A market experienced an even stronger reduction in value, by almost 28%. This is a sign of its continuing higher volatility, but also the result of fewer mega deals taking place than in previous years.

The top of the league table, as well as overall activity, is dominated by domestic activity, reflecting the current low appetite of foreign investors in relation to acquiring Russian assets.

Report: Russian e-commerce severely hampered by HR shortages

Part of a Global Perspectives Series on Russian e-commerce offered by East-West Digital News / Apr 02, 2012

The lack of qualified human resources appears to be the most difficult issue faced by the fast growing e-commerce industry in Russia, says a report by East-West Digital News. All key positions are affected, from general managers and project managers, to e-marketing specialists to IT and fulfillment teams.

The shortage of skilled employees on the market drives rapidly growing salaries – $10,000 per month or more for certain positions – and increases competition between employers for available employees. As a result, important positions may be filled with insufficiently skilled employees, or left vacant for months. Some Moscow companies try to recruit in the regions, or abroad, the study shows, based on interviews with dozens of market players and recruitment agencies.

Contactless payments take their first steps in Russia

By Elena Mikhaylova, Adrien Henni, East-West Digital News / Mar 30, 2012

On Wednesday, Vimpelcom, a major Russian mobile operator, announced it will deploy the NFC-based contactless payment system it implemented in St. Petersburg last year within the Moscow subway. Widespread commercial launch in Moscow is scheduled for the end of the year.

While most offline and online purchases made in Russia are still paid in cash, contactless payment experiments have been flourishing in several Russian cities over the last two years. Last October, Megafon, another leading operator, also launched NFC payments in the St. Petersburg subway, in addition to using the system for loyalty programs with several local banks and retailers.

The Spring of Russian E-Commerce: An Exclusive Global Perspectives Series

A Global Perspectives Series offered by East-West Digital News / Mar 19, 2012

In light of the fast development of e-commerce in Russia, this spring East-West Digital News and its partners are offering an exclusive series of articles and interviews with fascinating insights into this market, one that’s still little known among most foreign players.

Starting with an interview with Travelmenu.ru’s new CEO Katrin Buckenmaier, the series is made up of excerpts from an in-depth research paper on this industry that will be released next month.

Russian IT market faces cloudy future

By Vsevolod Pulya, Russia Beyond The Headlines / Mar 15, 2012

Even though the Russian IT market is growing fast, having recovered completely from the 2008-2009 crisis, a number of issues have come to the forefront.

The Russian Minister of Communications Igor Shchegolev has reported that the country’s information technologies market saw a growth spurt of 14.6 percent in 2011, and the Ministry of Economic Development predicts that the market will grow by 15.8 percent in 2012, and by 18.1 percent in 2013, hitting no less than $32 billion.

US venture capitalists go East: Russia’s startups now more appealing

By Adrien Henni, East-West Digital News / Mar 10, 2012

Is Russia becoming a new frontier for US venture capitalists? With local startups and incubators springing up like mushrooms, a number of foreign tech investors have started to operate in the country, which is striving for modernization.

Exemplifying the invest in Russia trend is Tiger Global Management, a New York-based international investment management firm. Over the past two years Tiger has invested twice in the Russian e-commerce platform Wikimart.ru – $5 million in 2010 and another $7 million in 2011 – and contributed $10 million in a round of financing for online travel sales site Anywayanyday.ru.

Cease-fire in political hacking on Election Day

By Elena Mikhaylova, Adrien Henni, East-West Digital News / Mar 05, 2012

In contrast to the massive hacker attacks that took place during the parliamentary election on December 4th and over the following weeks, no notable incidents were reported yesterday when Russian voters reelected Vladimir Putin as their president – a sign perhaps of the increased legal risks and political cost for the parties involved.

Using computer hackers in political battles had become almost common place over the last few years in Russia – the country where the largest number of DDoS attacks originated in the second half of 2011, according to a recent report from Russian Internet security provider Kaspersky.

Russia’s mobile operators gear up for OTT services

By Chris Dziadul, Broadband TV News / Jan 31, 2012

Interest in content delivery networks (CDNs) is growing amongst leading mobile operators in Russia. According to Russian publications AKTR and ComNews.ru, VimpelCom is currently looking for an equipment supplier for a CDN and expects to finalise a tender in the first half of this year.

MTS is meanwhile using one operated by the company NGENIX but plans to eventually build its own, while MegaFon has operated its own network on a commercial basis since last December.

Category: Analysis

Global software, games and consumer electronics companies target Russia

Click-and-mortar concepts gain traction among Russian retailers

Report: M&A in the Russian communications and media sector in 2011 and early 2012

Report: Russian e-commerce severely hampered by HR shortages

Contactless payments take their first steps in Russia

The Spring of Russian E-Commerce: An Exclusive Global Perspectives Series

Russian IT market faces cloudy future

US venture capitalists go East: Russia’s startups now more appealing

Cease-fire in political hacking on Election Day

Russia’s mobile operators gear up for OTT services

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