Russia has launched a probe against YouTube for “abusing” its dominant position in the market by making “biased” decisions about comment moderation, a government regulator said on Monday. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said that YouTube’s rules relating to the suspension or deletion of accounts are “opaque, biased and unpredictable.” “This leads to sudden blocking and …
Last week Yandex, the NASDAQ-listed Russian digital giant, announced a novelty in the field of image-to-text and automated translation technologies. Its browser, Yandex Browser, is now capable of translating text embedded within images “from 47 languages,” says the company, touting the feature as a world’s first for a desktop browser. “Now users can easily translate and read [an] image that contain text …
Yandex Browser translates texts in images from 47 languages Read More
Founded in 2015 near Kazan, Tatarstan — some 800 km east from Moscow, — Innopolis provides a glimpse into what technocrats within Putin’s regime hope will be the vision of a future Russia. As the government looks for ways to make the country less dependent on hydrocarbons and to build up the national tech sector, which is …
Fighting brain drain and creeping authoritarianism in Russia’s techno-utopian village Read More
X5 Retail Group, a leading Russian food retailer listed on the Moscow and London stock exchanges, has acquired a dark kitchen company called Mnogo Lososya (‘A Lot of Salmon’). The group’s head Igor Shekhterman revealed the transaction earlier this week in a media interview, without providing any financial details. “While we see great potential in this business, we didn’t have …
Wildberries, the number one Russian e-commerce company, is making its first steps on the US market with dedicated versions of its website and mobile app. The site’s URL, us.wildberries.ru, betrays its Russian origin, while no US suppliers have been onboarded for the moment, as reported by Kommersant. Deliveries will be carried out from Russian warehouses with the help …
Russian e-commerce leader makes first steps on US market Read More
Until recently, the Russian authorities showed little interest in genetics. The breakthrough came in 2019, when the government allocated 127 billion rubles (around $1.7 billion at the current exchange rate) to a special seven-year federal program. In fact, the Kremlin’s overall spending on projects involving genetics could actually reach 230 billion rubles ($3 billion) in …
On the night of April 8, Moscow rescuers found a woman sitting on a brick of ice in the Moscow (Moskva) River, 30 meters from the shore. The victim, born in 1995, showed signs of hypothermia and was hospitalized. She could not explain the reason for being on the ice. Following this incident, the Traffic …
Moscow river transport monitoring system trained to recognize people in water Read More
A new fund is emerging on the tiny Russian venture scene. With $50 million in capital, ‘The Games Fund’ is the brainchild of Maria Kochmola and Ilya Eremeev, two former executives from My Games Venture Capital (MGVC), Forbes Russia reports. Former Riot Games CTO Sergey Titov, alongside ex-top managers from GEM Capital, are also part of the …
New $50 million fund to invest in gaming across Eastern Europe Read More
Russia’s competition watchdog has launched a formal probe into Yandex, alleging the country’s largest technology company could be abusing its dominant position in the search market to promote its own services at the expense of competitors. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) said Tuesday that Yandex has failed to comply with a previous warning that it must stop favoring …
Anti-monopoly authority open case against Yandex for abusing search dominance Read More
Ozon, a NASDAQ-listed Russian e-commerce major, announced today an agreement with Sovcombank to acquire Oney Bank. This cash transaction is still subject to regulatory approval; its exact amount , which should “not exceed $10 million,” will be determined at closing, Through this deal, Ozon is acquiring the licenses required to develop its offering of financial services around its marketplace. …
Ozon to acquire Oney Bank to enhance financial service offerings Read More
Sber (previously know as Sberbank) is demonstrating once again its ambitions in the field of e-commerce with the acquisition of SaaS provider InSales, which was announced yesterday. The state-controlled financial and digital giant has agreed to acquire an 80% stake in InSales for an undisclosed amount. The rest of the shares will remain in the hands …
Sber acquires InSales to help Russian SMEs sell online Read More
Telegram messenger of Russian internet guru Pavel Durov aims to hold an initial public offering (IPO) in the next two years with a valuation of $30 billion – $50 billion, Vedomosti daily reports citing unnamed sources close to the Dubai-headquartered company. The Bell cited unnamed sources as saying that an IPO is most likely in …
