Quintura blog

Western Private Equity Funds Put $420 Million Into Russia

Yakov — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:44:42 +0000

The consortium of Western institutional investors led by AXA Private Equity and Paul Capital Partners invested $420 million into two private equity funds managed by the Russian fund manager Marshall Capital Partners (MCP) called Marshall Capital I (Marcap I) и Marshall Capital II (Marcap II), according to news agency RIA Novosti. UBS Investment Bank acted as exclusive financial adviser to MCP.

Marcap I plans to use funds to acquire some of the assets managed by MCP while Marcap II is expected to invest into retail, transport and real estate development projects in Russia and CIS countries. The fund will invest some $50 million per project. MCP also plans to increase the amount of private funds under management to $1 billion.

MCP portfolio companies include a provider of mobile value-added services Solvo Media Group, dairy and baby food producer Nutritek Group, and real estate developer Tsargrad.

Russian Internet Audience: comScore vs FOM

Yakov — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:39:20 +0000

Russia has been ranked as the fastest-growing Internet audience in Europe with 17.5 million visitors in June 2008, up 27% from June 2007, according to comScore.

However, data from FOM (Public Opinion Foundation) suggested that Russia had a monthly Internet audience of 32.7 million and weekly audience of 25.0 million in spring 2008.

It will be good to compare methodology that FOM and comScore use to find out where a difference comes from.

China Beats United States And Russia In Beijing 2008 Olympics

Yakov — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:13:37 +0000

I am a big fan of the Olympics. In Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps has won 8 gold medals, becoming the top athlete in history of the Olympics. Three gold medals were won by Jamaican sprint runner Usain Bolt, British cyclist Chris Hoy, Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice, and Chinese gymnast Kai Zou. China has won 51 gold medals in the 2008 Olympics, followed by the United States with 36 gold medals and Russia with 23 gold medals. The U.S. athletes won 110 medals in total, which is more than any other national team.

China also edged the United States in a number of unique visitors to Beijing2008.cn, the official web-site of the 2008 Olympics, reported comScore. The site attracted 16.5 million visitors during the first ten days of the Olympics, with China accounting for 4.3 million visitors (25.7%), USA - 4.1 million (24.8%), Canada - 937,000 (5.7%), UK - 853,000 (5.2%), and Australia - 463,000 (2.8%).

Essential Tips For Corporate Blogging From Quintura

Yakov — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:31:52 +0000

I have recently shared several tips regarding corporate blogging with Ernst-Jan Pfauth, a Dutch problogger and editor of The Next Web Blog. He posted my interview about the blogging in an article called Learn from Quintura...

Ernst-Jan also wrote Seven Essential Tips For Corporate Bloggers Who Want To Write Remarkable Content on his own blog, Dutch Problogger. I strongly recommend reading both posts and utilizing their key findings in a day-to-day blogging life.

In her article Marketing Moves to The Blogosphere in Washington Post today, Sarah Halzack gives real life examples how a blogging is becoming a part of marketing. I will add that it’s even more than that.

Yandex New Logo Says It Becomes Household Name in Russia

Yakov — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:47:23 +0000

The leading Russian search engine Yandex will launch a new logo on Monday, August 25. The new logo displays the Yandex name in Cyrillic, Яндекс. The change reflects a fact that Yandex has become a household name in Russia. When people think of both Internet and search in the country, they think of Yandex. All the previous Yandex logos and the new one were developed by design consultancy Art. Lebedev Studio.

Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh revealed in his interview to Times today of why the company manages to keep the search engine leadership in Russia. “Our technology is better suited for the Russian market,” Volozh said. “We have brilliant mathematicians and programmers. We are very strong on data analysis and have developed better technology, which is cutting-edge in Russia. We are constantly inventing new programs to stay ahead.”

Yandex not only develops but also makes acquisitions. To stay ahead of Google in Russia, the company acquired road traffic information service SMILink, business social network MoiKrug, and bought out its partner in online payment system Yandex.Money.

The upcoming Yandex IPO is expected to be the biggest technology IPO on NASDAQ in 2008. According to the company’s own statistics, its services had 50 million visitors in June 2008.

Update: Yandex recently announced on its corporate blog that the company had 1,500 employees in August 2008, up from 1,000 in November 2007. According to the company, it has 94 open vacancies.

85% of Russian Internet Users Shop Online

Yakov — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:47:22 +0000

The Russian online sales are booming. The Russian e-commerce market has doubled to $3.2 billion in 2007. The leading Russian consumer shopping site Ozon.ru reported sales of $45 million in 1H 2008, up 78% from 2007. The new online consumer shopping study of Russian internet users from market research firm Romir revealed that 85% of responders shop online. However, it’s yet to become a habit because only 16% of users shop online once a month.

Most of the shoppers or 70% paid for online goods in cash upon delivery while only 12% of responders used bank cards in online transactions and another 10% used online payment systems.

The most popular shopping items included books (51% of responders), computers (43%), home appliances (42%), software (31%), movies (26%), beauty products (25%), and music (23%). 96% of responders visited online shopping sites.

Among the popular online shops were Ozon.ru (41% of responders) and Bolero (11%) as well as Ultra Electronics, Softkey, and 003.ru, all 10%.

iPhone And BlackBerry Officially Come To Russia

Yakov — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:59:50 +0000

The largest Russian mobile phone operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has agreed with Apple to distribute iPhones in Russia starting from October, reported Reuters. MTS had more than 87 million subscribers at the end of July 2008, including almost 62 million subscribers in Russia. 17 million people access Internet from mobile phones in Russia, making the country ranked 4th in mobile phone penetration.

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.

Russian Advertising Market Up 20% in 1H 2008

Yakov — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:05:49 +0000

The Russian advertising market was valued at $5.2 billion in the first half of 2008, up 20% from 2007, according to the Russian Association of Communication Agencies (RACA). The market growth is slowing down for the first time since 2000.

The business daily Kommersant reported that the advertising market in Moscow is becoming saturated while the regional markets continue to show strong growth in ad spending.

Advertising on TV reached $2.7 billion, up 26% from 2007 while the advertising in print media was $1.1 billion, up 12% from 2007. The fastest growing advertising market segment was display Internet advertising, which was up 45% from 2007, said RACA. According to MindShare Interaction, the Russian online advertising market (including contextual advertising) was valued at $260 million in 1H 2008, up 73% from 2007.

Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies Is Now RUSNANO

Yakov — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:52:03 +0000

The Russian state-owned corporations are eager to re-brand themselves. First, it was Olympstroy, which oversees construction for Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Then, it was the Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank), which is expected to reveal a refined brand in upcoming fall.

Founded by the Russian Government in July 2007, the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies has launched its new brand - RUSNANO. It was developed by brand consultancy Differ of Sweden. According to business daily Kommersant, the corporation could have paid $0.2 million for re-branding project.

The symbol of the RUSNANO logo is a globe, a symbol of a future world leader. Using three major colors that can be endlessly combined – representing science, business and society – the symbol communicates the infinite possibilities of nanotechnology, and of RUSNANO, in Russia and globally. The short and simple name RUSNANO lends stability and validity to the logo. It indicates the Russian origin of the corporation and its main activity, being expressive and convenient to use it internationally.

RUSNANO received over $5 billion from the Russian budget to invest into nanotechnology projects in the country. Any foreign company may file an application for financing from RUSNANO. The only restriction is that at least part of the production facilities has to be located in Russia.

RUSNANO will hold the Nanotechnology International Forum Rusnanotech 08 in Moscow on December 3-5, 2008.

Russian Tennis Star Anna Kournikova Is Back, On Maxim Cover!

Yakov — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:44:26 +0000

It only happens once in a hundred years when representatives from one nation occupy the podium in the Olympics. In Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the Russian trio Elena Dementieva, Dinara Safina, and Vera Zvonareva has won gold, silver, and bronze medal in women’s singles tennis, respectively.

The September issue of the Maxim magazine features a former top 10 WTA tennis player Anna Kournikova from Russia. She may has left tennis but yet one of the hottest stars of the court.

Quintura has been powering site search for Maxim.com since May 2008.

Check the articles and images of Anna Kournikova on Maxim.com using Quintura for yourself!

Quintura now reaches 25% of Runet’s female audience powering site search for major portals for women in Russia including Passion.ru, Cosmo.ru, Missfit.ru, LeLuxe.ru, etc.