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

Category: International

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%).

Satellite communications operators Iridium and Thuraya come back to Russia

By East-West Digital News / May 17, 2012 / 2 Comments

Iridium Communications, the global satellite communications company, expects to commence operations soon in Russia, after technical tests are completed and acceptance certificate received from the Russian authorities.

“Our interconnect in Russia is built and 95 percent complete, and we’ll soon be pleased to announce our new start in Russia,” Corporate Communications Director Liz DeCastro told East-West Digital News.

Iridium’s predecessor company, Iridium LLC, already operated in Russia in the 1990s before ceasing business around the world due to a bankruptcy.

Qualcomm could invest “hundreds of millions of dollars” in Russian tech companies

By East-West Digital News / May 15, 2012 / 1 Comment

Qualcomm, a leading US-based international provider of wireless technology and services – with a particular emphasis on chipsets for smartphones – is ready to invest “hundreds of millions of dollars” in Russian tech companies, Senior VP Anastassia Lauterbach told the Russian business daily Kommersant.

According to its strategic plan adopted in late 2011, Qualcomm will pursue four goals in Russia, said Lauterbach: help operators develop their networks; develop an ecosystem of Internet services; make the smartphone more accessible to the population; and invest in technology and science.

Dating site Flirtic.com launches in Russia

By East-West Digital News / May 15, 2012

Flirtic.com, a dating and matchmaking site that began operating in early 2011, chose Russia as its first step to international expansion beyond its native Estonian market.

A beta version of the service is being launched this week to serve users in Moscow, but Flirtic.com has plans to cover St Petersburg, Kiev, and other Russian-speaking cities later this year, explained Andres Susi, the site’s Executive Director, in an exchange with East-West Digital News.

Rocket Internet receives $200 million from Russian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik

By East-West Digital News / May 11, 2012 / 1 Comment

Rocket Internet, the Samwer brothers’ famous Berlin incubator, has received a $200 million investment from Access Industries, a US based industrial holding owned by Russian-American billionaire Leonard Blavatnik. The news was reported earlier this week by Berlin-based tech blog VentureVillage.com, which cited unnamed industry sources.

The amount has placed Access Industries second behind Swedish investment company Kinnevik, VentureVillage.com notes. The latter spent a record €300 million on Rocket Internet and its portfolio companies in the last quarter alone.

Russian fund to invest €20 million in French startups as Russian-French tech ties grow

By East-West Digital News / May 09, 2012 / 1 Comment

The Russian high tech fund New Generation Investment (NGI) announced last week that it will launch a €20 million division dedicated to French startups, the French business daily Les Echos reported. “We are focusing on telecoms, web technolgies and tech-oriented media,” said NGI shareholder Leonid Reiman.

France will serve as a testing ground for one of NGI’s most ambitious projects – a VoIP and video conference service that would compete with Skype.

Pinterest.com considers Russian-language version – as local copycat reaches 250,000 members

By Adrien Henni, East-West Digital News / May 07, 2012

Pinterest.com, the much-hyped social network that defines itself as “an online pinboard,” announced last week its first steps in translating its service into other languages, starting with French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Pinterest is also pondering other languages, including Russian – which is mentioned between Malay and Swedish on the site’s second priority list.

Whereas the US startup was starting its crowdsourcing experiment, Pinme.ru, a Russian copycat, has announced impressive results just five months after launch: a monthly audience of 4.5 million unique users and 250,000 registered users.

Skolkovo to develop cooperation with China and Japan

By East-West Digital News / May 05, 2012

Skolkovo, the state-sponsored innovation hub nearing completion outside of Moscow, is seeking to extend its cooperation with China. Opportunities for cooperation were discussed last week at the Sino-Russian Trade and Investment Forum by China’s Vice-Premier Li Keqiang and Viktor Vekselberg, President of the Skolkovo Foundation.

Various leading Russian and Chinese businessmen were also in attendence at the forum, including top managers of Lenovo and ZTE, two companies actively developing activities in Russia.

iPhone sales finally grow – operators accused of overpricing conspiracy

By East-West Digital News, Marchmont News / May 04, 2012

In 2011, the Russian mobile operator and retailer MTS – one of the two exclusive importers of iPhones to Russia – brought in as many iPhones (for $140.8 million) as it had during all the years dating back to the product’s launch in Russia in 2008.

According to the IT and telecom news portal CNews.ru, MTS’s purchases of iPhones amounted to $65.4 million in 2008 and to $79.4 million in 2010 — but to just $3.4 million in 2009, due to the initial commercial failure of the smartphone.

Russian-speaking hackers lead global cybercrime

By Elena Mikhaylova, East-West Digital News / May 03, 2012

Group-IB, a leading Russian cybercrime investigation company, has just published its 2011 report on the “State and trends of the ‘Russian’ digital crime market.”

Russian-speaking hackers – both from Russia and abroad – generated more than one third of the global cybercrime value: they earned an estimated $4.5 billion out of a global “cybercrime market” which amounted to $12.5 billion in 2011. Cybercrime from Russia reached $2.3 billion, doubling from $1.2 billion in 2010, the report reveals.

Category: International

Global software, games and consumer electronics companies target Russia

Satellite communications operators Iridium and Thuraya come back to Russia

Qualcomm could invest “hundreds of millions of dollars” in Russian tech companies

Dating site Flirtic.com launches in Russia

Rocket Internet receives $200 million from Russian-American billionaire Len Blavatnik

Russian fund to invest €20 million in French startups as Russian-French tech ties grow

Pinterest.com considers Russian-language version – as local copycat reaches 250,000 members

Skolkovo to develop cooperation with China and Japan

iPhone sales finally grow – operators accused of overpricing conspiracy

Russian-speaking hackers lead global cybercrime

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