Quintura blog

Axel Springer and Forbes Extend Cooperation

Yakov — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:23:19 +0000

Over the last weekend there were rumors in Russian online media that Forbes was going be acquired by ONEXIM Group. Axel Springer Russia has been publishing the Russian edition of Forbes since 2004. The Forbes magazine reaches more than 714,000 readers every month in Russia with an average circulation of 120,000 copies.

On November 26, the Russian wholly-owned subsidiary of Axel Springer AG of Germany and Forbes Inc. agreed upon an extension of their cooperation. Axel Springer Russia will continue to publish the Russian edition of the Forbes magazine until at least 2020. Both partners also reached an agreement on the launch of line extensions and additional online activities.

In addition to Forbes, Axel Springer Russia publishes the magazines ComputerBild, Russian Newsweek, and OK! Magazine. The visual-based site search on magazine web-sites ComputerBild.ru and RuNewsweek.ru is powered by Quintura.

Axel Springer AG announced today that it acquired a 10 percent stake of major Turkish media group, Dogan Yayin Holding for EUR 47 million.

Quintura Does ‘Vertical’ Search Across Sites

Yakov — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:00:57 +0000

We are getting news that Yahoo! BOSS has launched so called ‘vertical lens‘ for search across your site categories or group of your sites. We at Quintura have already implemented this on several publisher networks of web-sites. As a result, Quintura’s hosted site search significantly increases user engagement in search resulting in more page views and clicks through images and banners in its search cloud.

Here is a ‘vertical’ search for several sites on Cosmopiltan magazine site Cosmo.ru or women-centric network site Luxemag. You can select searching on a particular site by clicking a respective tab above the Quintura-powered search cloud on one of those sites.

The advantages that Quintura Site Search brings to online publishers as compared to Yahoo! BOSS include:

Visual ‘Search Cloud’ Display

• Search queries create a highly engaging visual ‘Search Cloud’ display, that enables your viewers to quickly refine their search using their computer mouse

• ‘Vertical’ search cloud-based search across all of your sites to keep site users in your scope of sites

Editorial Tools

• Place Icons, Images, and Banners in your Search Cloud to make site content compelling and easier to discover

• Search analytics showing popular searches and result clicks, up to the minute

Easy Set up and Maintenance

• It takes minutes to create your own site search on Quintura Affiliate Portal (http://affiliates.quintura.com)

• Quick and easy widget customization according to site lay-out and colors.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Shopping Club Brands4Friends.de Raises EUR 10 Million

Yakov — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:26:26 +0000

The concept of online shopping clubs where members can buy designer brands at discount prices has got a real traction across Europe. First, it was vente-privee in France 2001. Then, came brands4friends.de in Germany in 2007 and KupiVIP.ru in Russia in 2008. Both were started with early-stage investments from Mangrove Capital Partners. In spite of the global financial crisis, today comes the news of one of the largest e-commerce financings on the year.

brands4friends.de, which is operated by Private Sales GmbH out of Berlin, has announced that the company raised EUR 10 million in the third round of funding led by Partech International. The round was joined by return backers Mangrove Capital Partners and Holtzbrinck Ventures, amongst others. In December 2007, the company raised EUR 5 million in a round led by Mangrove.

brands4friends.de, which was launched online in September 2007, has 1.2 million online club members in Germany and is one of the fastest growing e-commerce sites globally with up to 10,000 new members daily. Its current revenue run rate is EUR 30 million per year. The online shopping club sells original goods from renowned fashion and lifestyle brands exclusively to its members at significantly reduced prices.

The company was founded by Team Europe Ventures (a seed-stage fund of StudiVZ co-founder Lukasz Gadowski, Kolja Hebenstreit and Jan Backers), business angel investor Oliver Jung, brands4friends CEO Christian Heitmeyer and Constantin Bisanz. The latter two were awarded the German Entrepreneur Prize in November by the Harvard Business School Association of Germany.

I have recently spoken with Oskar Hartmann, CEO of KupiVIP.ru, who pointed to a very high conversion rate of site visitors to online club members and the fact that some of designer goods, for instance, Dior accessories were sold out in just several hours after sale started.

Disclosure: Mangrove Capital Partners is an investor in Quintura.

Google on Odnoklassniki.ru

Yakov — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:21:31 +0000

Having been refused an acquisition of contextual ad firm Begun in Russia, Google was likely looking for revansch. Well, it may has gotten one. This time, it’s not acquisition. It’s a business deal that would increase Google’s 33 percent share of Russian search market by several percentage points. According to business newspaper Kommersant, the largest Russian social network Odnoklassniki.ru is testing Google as a site search engine. The social network would generate additional $1.5-2 million per year from Google ads, said the newspaper.

If the parties go ahead with a revenue sharing deal, Google will not yet catch up with the leading Russian search engine Yandex but will certainly get closer in terms of market share and audience reach. Yandex has 54% share of Russian searches.

In May 2007, Yandex agreed with LiveJournal-owner SUP to power site search on LiveJournal.ru. The signed agreement’s in effect at the least until LiveJournal.ru would make the first million dollar from contextual advertisements Yandex.Direct.

Odnoklassniki.ru, which is led by newly hired CEO Nikita Sherman, has recently introduced new ways to monetize its 6 million daily users with SMS payments for premium features. In the first quarter of 2008, the site generated less than 10 percent of its revenues or $0.3 million from selling contextual advertisements. The ads were reportedly provided by Yandex.Direct.

Odnoklassniki.ru is majority owned by the leading Russian internet investor Digital Sky Technologies (DST) and its affiliates. The site, which has 25 million registered accounts, was founded by Albert Popkov in 2006.

ONEXIM Group to Acquire Forbes?

Yakov — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:44:03 +0000

When the economy is shrinking it’s good time for private equity investors to buy assets at a low valuation. There have been numerous reports in online media in Russia that ONEXIM Group is going to acquire Forbes. Here is the one confirmed by the Trud newspaper.

ONEXIM Group, which is led by Mikhail Prokhorov, is one of Russia’s largest private investment funds with a focus on mining industry, innovative projects in energy and nanotechnology, real estate and other industries. ONEXIM has more than $25 billion in funds under management.

In Russia, the Forbes magazine is published by Axel Springer Russia. The magazine web-sites Russian Newsweek and ComputerBild that are published by Axel Springer use the visual-based site search from Quintura.

ONEXIM Group has recently financed the launch of the Snob magazine in Russia. Next, coming are the Snob TV and muti-media online portal on Snob.ru.

In September 2008, ONEXIM Group acquired 50% of Renaissance Capital, the leading investment bank in the Russian, CIS and African markets for $500 million. The bank advised the shareholders of Mail.ru on a sale of 30% stake to media and Internet group Naspers.

Vertu

Yakov — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:21:35 +0000

My sister has got a birthday present. It’s a Vertu phone. To be precise, it’s from Vertu Constellation collection.

According to its corporate web-site, Vertu is the pioneer and leading manufacturer of handcrafted mobile phones for the luxury market. Having held the phone, I will confirm, sure, it is.

My Favorite Car - Gurney Signature Edition Mustang

Yakov — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:50:52 +0000

I saw my favorite car Gurney Signature Edition Mustang in downtown Moscow last week. Wish it’s mine. I hope the car maker Saleen will emerge from economic downturn. Perhaps, the Russian private equity will help it.

Hedge Funds in Russia to Focus on Private Equity Deals

Yakov — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:24:25 +0000

The hedge funds that focus on investing in Russia will drop by 50% next year. The hedge funds in Russia will become more like private equity funds and make investments in private companies. Due to decreased asset valuation, the funds shall return more than 40 percent per year, according to Oleg Zhelezko, the founder and CEO of Da Vinci Capital Management. He delivered the Russian hedge fund industry market forecast in the SmartMoney magazine.

In spite of the fact that investors in Russia-specific hedge funds have withdrawn $10 billion in Q3 2008 and are expected to withdraw another $10 billion over the next two years, some of major Russia financial institutions such as UFG, URALSIB, and Renaissance Capital are forming new private equity funds to benefit from low asset values in downsizing economy.

In September 2008, Da Vinci Capital invested $10 million for 9 percent stake in child-fashion retailer and wholesale operator Imperia Detstva (Империя Детства) in Moscow. The goal’s to expand its retail operations in both Moscow and regions of Russia over the next three years.

In April 2008, Da Vinci Capital invested $18 million for 17 percent stake in the leading Russian and Eastern European software outsourcing service provider EPAM Systems.

Russian Made $6 Million Playing Poker in Vegas

Yakov — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:31:46 +0000

The stars of the 21 movie may have been jealous. The movie was inspired by a story of MIT students who mastered the art of card counting and took the casinos in Las Vegas for millions.

Last week, it’s the most unpredictable Main Event of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. In the final table, one player checked and the called a bet of $1.25 million from the other. Then, it’s made $2 million. Then raised to $6 million. That was the end…

Peter Eastgate of Denmark has become the youngest ever winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event. At the age of 22, he won $9.15 million.

27-year old Ivan Demidov of Moscow, Russia was the runner-up. He made $5.8 million in the final table.

Ivan graduated from the Moscow State University in 2004 with a degree in mathematics. He raised the money to enter the Main Event with the help of a friend.

Not a bad investment, after all…

Beeline Named The Best Russian Brand 2008

Yakov — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:18:01 +0000

Russia is not only known to the world by its vast natural resources and luxury consumer shopping habits but also by its enormous territory. When it comes to building a brand in Russia, the domestic mobile phone operators that has covered the country’s territory and population lead the race.

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.