Index Ventures invests £9.1 million in Russian Amazon
E-consultancy reports that Index Ventures, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Cisco Systems have invested £9.1m (approx. $18m) into Ozon.ru, the Russian “Amazon”. Ozon.ru intends to use the capital to develop its logistics, expand product lines and establish new distribution centres across Russia. Founded in 1998, Ozon.ru is the most popular e-commerce site in Russia, with over 120,000 […]
Mail.ru video service broadcasting Russian space launch
Mail.ru will has signed a deal to broadcast the Soyuz space shuttle launch through their new online video service, video.mail.ru. On 7 April at 21.00 Moscow time a live audience of millions of television viewers and Internet users can watch the launch of the manned spacecraft [Soyuz] from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. “We are happy to […]
Internet & Business Conference in Russia
The 2nd Internet and Business conference will take place in Moscow on the 18th-20th of April. Some of the topics set to be covered include: Exponential growth of internet in Russia Contextual advertising/pay for placement systems and future developments Electronic payments, problems and solutions Mobile internet Applying the lessons of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act […]
Google opens new office in Moscow
Google is celebrating their first anniversary in Russia at the moment and according to 3dnews.ru, they are marking the occasion by opening a new office in Moscow. In 2006, Google set up two development centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg. They have managed to sign partnerships over the last year with several large IT players […]
Russian E-commerce up 42% in 2006
Yandex, the leading Russian search portal, has released a new report on the state of e-commerce in Russia. The results are promising, up 42% in 2006, racing ahead of the 25% rise seen in western markets. As expected, Moscow leads the way with 61% of the sales for the country coming from the capital. Users […]
Russian Yandex acquires social networking site Moikrug.ru
Yandex announced today that they have acquired the popular networking sites for professionals, MoiKrug.ru. The social network site MoiKrug.ru which translates as ‘my circle’ in English, helps to maintain and build business contacts, find classmates, peers and colleagues. In a similar way to LinkedIn.com the service allows members to grow their networks and give/receive recommendations. […]
Rambler appoints ex-Yahoo as General Director
Russian search company Rambler has announced the appointment of former Yahoo! Europe chief, Mark Opzoomer, as General Director (CEO). This move is seen by many analysts as a positive step for the search company. While Rambler were the first search engine in Russia they have lost placement over the years to Yandex, who now leads […]
Russian Yandex introduces conversion tracking
Yandex, the largest of the search engines in Russia have introduced conversion/goal tracking to their engine this week. Site owners can place the JavaScript on their pages and conversions will be listed in their reports for PPC advertisements. The goal itself can either be a specific page in the web site or a set number […]
Contexual advertising in Russia at $110m
According to research carried out by Begun.ru, Rambler and Yandex’s turnover in contexual advertising in 2006 was $110m. The market has risen 2½ times since the 2005 figure of $45m. The turnover of media advertising in 2006 amounted to $100m, showing a growth of 1.6 times compared to 2005. This is the first time in […]
ICANN U-turn over outdated domains
According to Cnews, plans by ICANN to delete some of the more ‘outdated’ domain extensions in their index have been derailed. They had opened a public discussion in San Paulo with a view to removing these extensions, which ended last month. Top of their list of their list for deletion was the Russian .su (Soviet […]