Opera Software

The safe search engines and web browsers for kids include Ask Kids, KidZui, KIDO’Z, and our own Quintura for Kids.

Being the leading internet browser for desktop and mobile in Russia and Ukraine, Opera Software has decided to open an office in St. Petersburg, Russia. Headquartered in Norway, Opera has 5 employees in Russia who work remotely.

In May 2009, Opera Software bought Mobica Solutions of Poland for $2 million. Before purchase, Opera contracted consultants from Mobica.

In January 2010, Opera Software acquired mobile ad optimizer AdMarvel for $8 million, plus, an additional consideration of up to $15 million, subject to meeting certain financial targets over the next two years.

Founded in 2006, Evernote has 2 million users. The service, which is available in English and Russian, works online and on mobile devices BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and Palm Pre as well as on Windows and Mac computers.

Evernote utilizes a “freemium” business model. The basic service is free but offers a limited amount of online storage space. For a small monthly fee, users get more storage, increased security and can share notes.

According to Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux’s forth annual ranking of 40 most valuable Russian brands arranged by brand value, Beeline and MTS were named the most valuable brands in Russia with a value of $7.4 billion and $6.9 billion, respectively.

VimpelCom (Beeline) is the second largest mobile phone operator in Russia and CIS countries with 53.7 million subscribers as of June 30, 2008. VimpelCom was the first Russian company to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1996, under the symbol VIP. Beeline topped the brand rankings in Russia in 2007, 2006 and 2005.

Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) is the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS countries with 87.6 million subscribers (incl. 61.2 million in Russia) at the end of September 2008. MTS listed its shares on NYSE in July 2000, under the symbol MBT. MTS is majority-owned by Sistema, the largest private sector consumer services company in Russia and the CIS.

MegaFon, the brand behind Russia’s number three mobile phone operator is valued at $569 million and ranked 6th. The media brands behind television channels, NTV and CTC are valued at $335 million and $194 million, respectively, and ranked 11th & 22hd.

Founded in 2000 by Megapage wireless system distributor, AutoLocator was the first company in Russia to launch vehicle anti-theft systems utilizing both radio and GPS/GSM location systems supported by chase teams and a 24/7 command and control center. AutoLocator reports on its corporate web-site that its total recovered vehicle value has reached more than $140 million.

Alex Genin, Managing Director of Access Industries CIS told about its reasons for the acquisition in the company’s press release: “With Russia becoming the largest auto market in Europe, AutoLocator provides an excellent platform for Access to take part in this increasingly important sector of the economy. Within the next few years the telematic unit and service will be considered a standard feature on all cars.”

Access Industries, which was founded in 1986, is chaired by Len Blavatnik. In 2007, Access Industries together with Atlantic Bridge Ventures acquired LogicaCMG’s telecoms products business for $525 million and formed Acision. In 2004, Access Industries invested into the largest Russian producer of television series AMEDIA.

According to business daily Kommersant, Access Industries has invested into a recent acquisition of film distribution and marketing companies as well as film libraries of Mel Gibson’s Icon Group by Stadium.

Founded in 2003 by mobile phone and consumer electronics distributor Severen, Egrad has over 1,400 retail outlets in Russia, including over 800 outlets under franchise. The company reported revenues of ca. $800 million in 2007.

In April 2007, Russian Funds invested over $7 million for a 40% stake in Egrad.

Founded in 1997, Euroset has more than 5,000 retail outlets in Russia and its neighboring countries. The company reported revenues of $3.6 billion in 2007. Euroset is owned by its two founders Evgeny Chichvarkin and Timur Artemiev.

Founded by private individuals in 2007, EZtalk started providing services in January 2008 and now has 30,000 users. With accelerated marketing spending, the service could reach several million subscribers out of more than 140 million mobile users in Russia.

EZtalk requires registration via its web-site and download of its application to mobile phone. After topping up an account via a payment terminal, user can make calls to Europe, US, Canada and some other countries for about $0.30 per minute or to anywhere in Russia for $0.15 per minute. EZtalk has interoperability agreements for voice traffic with several long-distance and international telecom operators including Rostelecom and Orange.

VTB Venture Fund (ВТБ – Фонд венчурный), which was formed in September 2007, is managed by VTB Asset Management, part of banking group VTB.

In June 2008, VTB Venture Fund invested in provider of indoor-advertising and interactive marketing solutions BS Graphics (Б.С. Графика).

MTS‘ major competitor VimpelCom (Beeline) recently agreed with Research In Motion (RIM) to exclusively sell the BlackBerry 8800 smartphone to corporate Beeline subscribers in Russia.

Beeline and MTS were named the best Russian brands in 2007.

You can always read the latest news, tips and rumors about iPhone in Russia on iPhones.ru, the leading Russian blog about iPhones, where Quintura happens to power visual-based search.

Update: According to business daily Vedomosti, all three major Russian mobile phone operators will begin selling iPhones in upcoming fall. The newspaper reported that Beeline and Megafon committed to sell 1.5 million iPhones each over the next two years while MTS committed to sell 1 million iPhones over the next three years. The average iPhone selling price will be $1,000 per phone.

The report from Nielsen discovers that entertainment, gaming and music were major drivers of mobile Internet growth in BRIC countries as compared with the U.S. and Europe where email, weather, news and search are among the top categories for mobile Internet users.

The largest Russian mobile telecom operator Mobile TeleSystems expects that the mobile data transmission market in Russia will increase from $0.4 billion in 2007 to $4.8 billion in 2012 while the Russian mobile content market will grow from $0.8 billion in 2007 to $5.4 billion in 2012.

In March 2008, AriaDSL was the biggest winner in the Italian WiMAX auction by securing licenses in all Italian regions for a total payment of EUR 47.5 million. In April 2008, AriaDSL signed a collaboration agreement with BT Italy where AriaDSL will provide BT with wireless services to enhance BT’s offering of corporate telecoms solutions, while BT will help AriaDSL to develop its network and customer offerings.

ICON Private Equity has some $1 billion in private equity under management. The firm has offices in Moscow, Russia and Kyiv, Ukraine.

Trivon launched on May 15 its nationwide broadband network under the Virgin Connect name in 32 Russian regions covering Moscow, St. Petersburg and the largest 20 cities in Russia.

Virgin Connect plans to gain a 10% market share within 5 years in Russia, according to Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group. He also added that Virgin Connect would demystify the complex tariff jungle and bureaucracy in the market as well as provide a fresh and human customer experience to Russians.

Virgin’s brand values are Value for Money, Good Quality, Brilliant Customer Service, Innovation, Competitively Challenging and Fun.

Trivon was formed in September 2004 by a team of telecom professionals and few months later its subsidiaries started providing Internet access services in several Russian regions. In 2007, Trivon acquired a telecoms group holding additional licenses for the provision of broadband Internet and voice services. According to Vedomosti business daily, the company could have spent $40 million to acquire the licenses.

The private equity funds already invested over $70 million in Russian WiMAX operators in 2008.

MTS was ranked 89^th in the BrandZ Top 100 list with a brand value of $8.1 billion. MTS reported revenues of $8.2 billion in 2007, up 29% from 2006. The company had 85 million subscribers in the end of March 2008. MTS and its associates and subsidiaries are licensed to provide GSM services in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus with a total population of more than 230 million.

Google topped the BrandZ Ranking of the world’s Top 100 Most Powerful Brands for the second consecutive year with a value of $86.1 billion followed by GE at $71.4 billion and Microsoft at $70.8 billion.

Millward Brown also named Russia’s 2nd largest mobile phone operator Beeline among “brands to watch in future brand rankings”.

Beeline and MTS were named the best Russian brands in Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux’s third annual ranking of 40 most valuable Russian brands in October 2007.