MySpace, which has announced restructuring its international operations, will close its Russian office on June 30, confirmed MySpace Russia’s Legal Director Andrei Mironov to Webplanet.

MySpace opened the Russian office in Moscow in 2008. MySpace Russia operations is managed by CEO Alexander Turkot. The company lists 8 employees on its Russian web-page.

According to TNS Web Index, MySpace has a monthly reach of 1 million people in Russia in May 2009 vs. leading Russian social networks VKontakte.ru with a monthly reach of more than 13 million people and Odnoklassniki.ru with a monthly reach of 12 million people.

The Russian social networking market is dominated by Russian social networks Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki.ru and MoiKrug (which was acquired by Yandex in 2007).

The leading Russian online portal Mail.ru, which is owned by Digital Sky Technologies (DST) and Naspers, has announced 2008 financial results according to US GAAP. The company accounts were audited by Ernst & Young.

Mail.ru 2008 revenues were $74.6 million, up 45% from 2007. The net income was $34.3 million in 2008, up 29% from 2007. Mail.ru net income margin was 46%. Mail.ru has a staff of 450 employees in offices in Moscow and six Russian regional cities.

Mail.ru, which turned 10 years old in October 2008, has postponed a London-based IPO last summer.

Mail.ru has a monthly audience of more than 40 million, which is similar in size to audiences of Yandex and Rambler. However, Mail.ru generated annual revenues 4 times less than Yandex ($300 million) and 32% less than Rambler ($110 million) in 2008. In contrast, Mail.ru net income margin of 46% was much higher than Rambler’s margin of 3%. Yandex did no disclose its net income in 2008.

The three companies Yandex, Rambler Media and Mail.ru hold 80% of Russian internet advertising market valued at $590 million in 2008.

After months of speculation, Yandex and Ozon.ru shareholder Baring Vostok Capital Partners (BVCP) has emerged as a potential investor in Russia’s largest software vendor 1C Company, reported business daily newspaper Kommersant. The private equity fund, which is now doing a due diligence of the company, could invest some $100 million in 1C Company, valuing it at $500 million, the newspaper suggested.

ERP and mutimedia software vendor 1C Company, which is controlled by founder and CEO Boris Nuraliev, generated revenues of $450 million and income of $55 million in 2008.

BVCP raised Baring Vostok Private Equity Fund IV with total committed capital of $1.05 billion in February 2007. This was the largest private equity fund in Central and Eastern Europe at the time. The funds under management of BVCP paid cumulative dividends of $1,232 million in 1998 - 2007.

BVCP says that 27% of capital invested by Baring Vostok funds has been into telecommunication, media and technology sectors. BVCP is a major investor in search engine Yandex, online store Ozon.ru, IT services provider for financial institutions CFT, financial risk management software vendor Riskdata, WiMax telecom operator Enforta, wireless broadband equipment vendor Infinet Wireless, and the others.

The leading book publisher in Russia, Eksmo has acquired the largest Russian online digital book store LitRes from Imhonet.ru recommendation service founder Alexander Dolgin, reported Webplanet by citing unnamed sources.

Founded in 2007 as a result of a merger of several online digital book libraries, LitRes has more than 200 thousand registered users and 1 million unique monthly visitors. LitRes has more than 19,000 ebooks in its catalog from more than 4,500 authors. LitRes pays authors a share for each ebook sold. The site says its average ebook price is only 11 Rubles (34 cents).

Founded in 1991, Eksmo holds 15 percent share of Russian book publishing market. The company published more than 10,000 book titles with a total print run of 99.7 million copies in 2008. In September 2007, Eksmo acquired a majority stake in audio book publishing business of CDCom.

Direct Group, which recently sold its Russian mail order business Na Dom to Otto Group of Germany, has invested an undisclosed amount in exchange for a minority stake in online shopping club KupiVIP.ru, according to KupiVIP.ru CEO Oskar Hartmann. KupiVIP.ru investor Nikolay Mitushin of ABRT Fund confirmed the investment.

As part of the deal, Direct Group CEO Pascal Clément will join KupiVIP.ru’s Board. Direct Group, which sold a majority stake in “Russia’s Amazon” Ozon.ru to Baring Vostok Capital Partners in late 2006, shall bring its expertise in distance selling and logistics to KupiVIP.ru.

The Russian designer clothes, shoes and accessories market is valued at $5 billion per year, of which KupiVIP.ru aims to capture 3 percent over the next few years and reach annual sales of $150 million.

Founded in 2008, KupiVIP.ru previously raised funding from Mangrove Capital Partners, Arlan and ABRT Fund. The online shopping club has more than 500,000 registered users. Its current monthly sales exceed $1 million.

Founded in 1996, Direct Group is a leader in market expansion services in Russia. It owns a majority stake in leading Russian women-centric site WomanJournal.ru, which raised EUR 6 million from French VC investors last summer.

Russian Venture Company (RVK), which acts as a fund of funds and provided funding to 6 venture capital funds, is going to refine its strategy to more effectively support innovative technology startups in Russia.

Igor Agamirzyan, General Director of RVK, announced at Moscow Venture Forum today that RVK will launch a “seed” fund of 2 billion Rubles (ca. $65 million), reported Vedomosti newspaper.

RVK will invest up to 25 million rubles ($0.8 million) for a minimum 25% stake in a startup company alongside a private investor. RVK will provide 75% of total funding while private investor shall provide the remaining 25% funding. The startup projects shall be selected and introduced to RVK by “accredited” venture partners.

RVK plans to fund 50 to 80 companies over the next 3 years.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Russian mobile advertising market reached $27 million in 2008, reported business newspaper Vedomosti. The market is expected to increase to $31 million in 2009.

Most of mobile ad spending in Russia go to WAP sites and mobile marketing. Mobile internet advertising consist of spending on advertising delivered to mobile phones via text messages, display ads, video ads, local search, and other formats designed for mobile handset screens.

The leading Russian mobile advertising service MobileDirect raised funding from Ru-Net last year. In September 2008, Phonevalley, part of Publicis Groupe, launched operations in Russia.

In comparison, the mobile advertising revenues in the U.S. and Canada were estimated at $208 million in 2009 by Parks Associates.

Chairman and major owner of Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), one of Russia’s largest steel producers, Vladimir Lisin agreed to acquire 100 percent interest in business media company United Media for $23.5 million from Arkadi Gaydamak and managers of the company, reported business newspaper Kommersant.

Founded in 2007, United Media includes radio stations Business FM and Kino FM, online portal BFM.ru and weekly newspaper Business & Financial Markets. United Media generated revenues of $12 million and net loss of $1 million in 2008. Launched in March 2007, Business FM radio station has a daily audience of 370 thousand in Moscow. Launched in December 2008, portal BFM.ru has 1 million monthly visitors.

Vladimir Lisin owns Moscow-based daily newspaper Gazeta and Lipetsk-based media group Rumedia.

In January 2009, Alexander Lebedev acquired 75% interest in London’s daily newspaper Evening Standard for GBP 8.3 million from Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT).

Denis Simachev, one of the most well-known Russian fashion designers, is going to introduce his own design of iPhone.

Called “SimaPhone“, the iPhone is decorated with Russian national elements of khohloma.

The designer previously applied khohloma to Ducati motobikes and Porsche cars.

From a brief concept of the DENIS SIMACHEV trademark:

“We use questionable, ambiguous artefacts of national culture, which are intentionally cultivated
to be both naive and honest.

We try to propagate the specific attributes of the Russian personality through its traditions
and high technologies, elitist and mass culture, and official and underground spirit.”

Happy birthday, Denis!

Naspers‘ Polish subsidiary MIH Allegro said it has launched a public tender offer to acquire up to 100% of Warsaw-listed financial portal Bankier.pl, for a total value of $19.3 million.

Bankier.pl, which is a top 3 Polish financial news portal with 1.9 million monthly unique visitors, provides information on financial news, analysis and comparison-shopping on consumer financial products in Poland. Bankier.pl reported revenues of ca. $1.4 million and EBITDA of ca. $0.2 million in Q1 2009.

MIH Allegro plans to integrate Bankier.pl with Allegro, its Polish e-commerce platform. Naspers said that one of Bankier’s current shareholders committed to tender its 18.4% stake as a part of the public offer.

In 2009, MIH Allegro acquired a majority stake in Ukrainian e-commerce platform UAProm.

Naspers owns 43% of Russian leading online portal, Mail.ru.

Zed Group, a Madrid, Spain-headquartered mobile content provider, has acquired 50 percent plus 1 share in Temafon, a mobile content aggregation service and part of Tema mobile media holding, reported business newspaper Vedomosti. The deal could be valued at more than $5 million. Temafon is exclusive aggregation service provider of Russian-based mobile content to Russia’s 2nd largest mobile operator VimpelCom (Beeline), which indirectly owns a minority stake in Temafon.

Through the acquisition, Zed will strengthen its position on the Russian mobile content market, which is expected to reach $1 billion in 2009. Zen already owns Infon, the leading mobile content provider in Russia, via acquisition of UK’s Monstermob.

The Russian mobile content market was estimated at $800 million in 2008, up 40% from 2007. The fastest growing mobile content services included ring back tones and games.

In April 2009, more than 31 million people in Russia age 15 and older accessed the Internet from a home or work location, spending an average 15 hours and consuming an average 2,228 pages per visitor, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. The Internet audience in Russia was the fourth largest in Europe with 31.3 million visitors, making it the largest online population in Eastern Europe.

Of the 17 European countries individually reported by comScore, Germany’s online audience was the largest with 40 million visitors in April 2009, followed by the U.K. with 36.8 million visitors, and France with 36.3 million visitors. Being the seventh largest online audience with 17.8 million visitors, Turkey had the highest engagement of users in Europe, who spent an average 32 hours and viewed an average 3,044 pages of content per month.

DST (Digital Sky Technologies)’ founding partner and CEO, Yuri Milner said in his interview that DST will do IPO. The exact dates will depend on market conditions and readiness of DST itself but the IPO could happen within the next three years. DST was reportedly valued at $1 billion when Russian media and metal investor Alisher Usmanov increased its stake in the company.

Founded in 2005, DST is run by three partners Yuri Milner, previously CEO of the #1 Russian language website, Mail.ru; Gregory Finger, previously head of the Moscow office of a multi-billion dollar hedge fund, NCH; and Alexander Tamas, previously co-head of internet and software coverage in EMEA for the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. Yuri Milner attended Wharton Business School in 1990 - 1992.

The other shareholders of DST include Alisher Usmanov, Renaissance Partners, Tiger Global and Goldman Sachs.

DST holds significant interests in most-visited Russian online portal, Mail.ru and social networks Odnoklassniki.ru and Vkontakte in Russia, Nasza-Klasa.pl in Poland, and One in the Baltic countries.

DST is using its own and shareholder funds to do a $300 investment in Facebook. Most of DST portfolio companies are profitable and grow at 30 to 100 percent per year.

Will IPO of DST be the largest Internet IPO from Russia? Will it be bigger than Yandex IPO? I think that we shall know that already in 2010.

The largest Russian internet investor, Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which owns stakes in Russian and Eastern European market leading social networks Odnoklassniki.ru, Nasza-Klasa.pl and Vkontakte.ru as well as Russia’s most visited online portal Mail.ru, has invested $200 million into preferred stock for 1.96 percent stake in Facebook, valuing the company at $10 billion. In addition, DST plans to spend at least $100 million in order to purchase Facebook common stock from existing common stockholders.

Founded in 2005, DST is run by its partners Yuri Milner, Gregory Finger and Alexander Tamas who own majority of the group. The other owners of DST are Alisher Usmanov and Renaissance Partners.

DST is expected to bring to Facebook more global market perspective and its experience in monetizing social networks with micro payments.

The investment of $300 million in Facebook will be the largest internet-related cross-border investment to be made by a Russian group.

Renaissance Partners, the merchant banking arm of Renaissance Group, has sold a half of its 4 percent stake in Digital Sky Technologies (DST) to Alisher Usmanov, reported business newspaper Kommersant. As a result, Mr. Usmanov increased his stake in DST from 30 percent to 32 percent, the newspaper said. According to analyst estimates, the deal could be worth $20 million, implying a value of DST at $1 billion.

Renaissance invested in DST in November 2007. The founder of Metalloinvest holding and owner of Kommersant publishing house, Mr. Usmanov acquired a stake in DST in summer 2008. He also obtained a 50 percent stake in LiveJournal-owner SUP Media after merging online newspaper Gazeta.ru into SUP last summer.

Russia’s leading investment bank Renaissance Capital, part of Renaissance Group, served as exclusive financial adviser to Metalloinvest on acquisition of a controlling stake in music television channel Muz-TV. The bank also served as financial adviser to Digital Sky Technologies on sale of a minority stake in Mail.ru to Naspers.

PCWorld.com blogger Rick Broida has reviewed Quintura for Kids in his article “Keep Kids Safe Online: The Quintura Search Engine” on the blog: Hassle-Free PC.

Here is an explanation why Rick turned to Quintura:

“Because I can’t monitor my kids’ computer activity every second of the day, I’m starting by replacing Google with Quintura. This kid-friendly search engine lets you type in a query and/or click your way through a word cloud and get G-rated results in return.”

Since 2007, the teachers and librarians of more than 1,000 elementary schools in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand have been using Quintura for Kids, a kids-friendly search engine developed and operated by Quintura.

Yuri Milner, the founding partner of Internet investment holding Digital Sky Technologies (DST), whose social networks in portfolio companies have more than 85 million registered members and 20 million daily users, is seeking a Board of Directors post at Facebook as a part of proposed $200 million to $350 million investment into the company, reported business newspaper Kommersant. Having a Board seat and owning a stake in Facebook would put DST in a strong negotiation position, if it were to merge its social networking portfolio assets into Facebook.

Digital Sky Technologies (DST) is the majority owner of Forticom Group, the operational holding company that runs market leading social networks such as Odnoklassniki.ru in Russia, Nasza-Klasa.pl in Poland, One.lv in Latvia and One.lt in Lithuania. DST also owns a significant minority stake in Vkontakte.ru, the leading social network in Russian-speaking internet among young people with 35 million registered members and 9.5 million daily users.

DST is the largest investor in Russian internet companies. Its portfolio include MMO games developer and operator Astrum Online Entertainment, electronic payments operator OE Investments, online recruitment service provider HH.ru (HeadHunter), e-commerce business platform Center for Economic Developments (B2B-Center.ru), and more than 20 other companies.

DST is run by three partners Yuri Milner, Gregory Finger and Alexander Tamas. The company has offices in Moscow and London.

First, its was the tennis star Anna Kournikova who became a top 10 WTA player. Then, it was Maria Sharapova who won Wimbledon in 2006 and US Open in 2007. And now, a new sports and model star is coming from Russia. This time, she plays golf. Her name is Maria Verchenova. She is striving to become the first Russian to win a Masters tounament in golf.

Moscow-born Maria Verchenova is the first Russian female golf player to enroll full-time to the Ladies European Tour. The 23-year-old was first introduced to golf by her father, Vitaly Verchenov when she was twelve. She was a ballet dancer at that time. Dancing is still her passion as well as shopping. Being 176sm tall, Maria often wears stylish and sexy clothes on the gold course and thus gets lots of media attention.

In her recent interview to Golf365, Maria Verchenova said that while in Moscow she plays golf against a good friend, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, former world’s number one tennis player.

Having won several Russian Championships, Maria Verchenova turned Pro in December 2006. At her career high, she finished 5th at Tenerife Ladies Open last June and now she is 62nd in the 2009 Solheim Cup Standings.

The leading Russian sports daily Sport Express noticed last December that Maria Verchenova and her younger sister Anna Verchenova are coached by their father and supported by the family budget. Maria has not yet got a sponsor as well as a proper web-site. Perhaps, Quintura, whose audience is mostly women-centric and which will move pan-European in 2009, shall become her first online sponsor!

Google has introduced several new search options on its search engine including Wonder Wheel, a map to see related searches and refine searching. Quite a few bloggers already said that it is very similar to Quintura’s search cloud (or search map). What is also noticed that Google’s Wonder Wheel is missing images in the search map.

Here are screen shots of search for “Apple + iPhone” on Quintura.com and Google.com.

To join the conversation, go to the Twitter search for “Quintura” or leave your comments here on this blog.

Will this be the end of the visual search engines or just the beginning?