Russia Archive

Yakov Sadchikov, President & CEO of visual search engine Quintura, has put together the following list of the top 10 Russian web startups for 2011.

In September 2011, Russia became the largest Internet market in Europe with 51 million online users. Who are the top emerging internet companies that disrupt the Russian market. Find out below a list of top 10 Russian web startups of 2011.

1. Oktogo.ru

Having raised $5 million in venture capital from European early-stage investors, Oktogo.ru is #1 in Russian online travel. Russia’s ‘Booking.com‘ Oktogo.ru has not only collected the largest online hotel database in Russia but also baked it with user reviews from TripAdvisor.

Oktogo.ru CEO Marina Kolesnik is one of the most visionary female internet entrepreneurs from Russia.

2. ZeptoLab (Cut the Rope)

Russia’s answer to Rovio‘s Angry Birds, ZeptoLab‘s Cut the Rope reached 60 million game downloads in the first year from initial release without venture money.

Managed by Voinov brothers, Misha Lyalin and, from recently, Diana Moldavsky, Moscow-based ZeptoLab strives to leverage its Om Nom game character by releasing Cut the Rope sequel and branching out into comic books and plush toys.

3. Biglion

Heavily-funded by Tiger Global and Ru-Net, coupon service Biglion beats Groupon and other upstarts in the space in Russia. Biglion delivers the highest revenue growth in Russia’s internet history: from zero to $15 million monthly revenues in one and a half years. Biglion could be the next largest internet IPO candidate from Russia after Yandex in 2011 and Mail.ru Group in 2010.

4. Metabar

Metabar is the perfect example of how to turn a simple idea into a hundred million business. Founded by Yandex grad Michael Ushakov, Metabar offers browser toolbar creation service, just like Conduit. To grow fast, Metabar has raised $1 million from Runa Capital.
Continue reading “Top 10 Russian Web Startups of 2011” »

By now most of us have seen inside the Google offices via photos like the ones HongKiat put together of Google’s locations around the world. Stephen from Office Snapshots has some photos from the Apple HQ in Cupertino, California. We’ve covered Russian search engine Yandex several times and I know you were left wondering what their offices look like and how they differ from the offices of U.S. search engines.

Here’s a look (translated)  into the Yandex office at nighttime. EnglishRussia notes, “The office works round-the-clock seven days a week. There is no provision for time of coming and leaving of employees – you can work at night if you want, but must do your work well…The only thing they don’t have – sofas. It is made specially that employees go home at least to sleep.” They have smoking rooms as well – something I am guessing Google does not offer as part of their compensation package.

Here are a few of the photos I liked – check out the full gallery for a full office photo tour.

They grow plants inside the office – those lights help the plants grow

Continue reading “A Look Inside the Offices of Russian Search Engine Yandex” »

Prof-Media, which owns leading Russian online portal company Rambler Media and entertainment content magazine publisher Afisha, will merge the two companies. The merged company under Rambler shall have annual revenues of over $150 million and challenge the Russian Internet market leaders Yandex, Mail.ru/DST and Google in Russia. I think that combining Afisha and Rambler would improve operational efficiency and provide Afisha with traffic from Rambler properties.

Olga Turischeva, who became Rambler CEO in April 2009, is going to leave Rambler Media by the year-end. The Rambler-owner Prof Media has appointed Nikolay Molibog as new CEO of Rambler. Previously, Nikolay Molibog was CEO of Afisha publishing house, which is owned by Prof Media.

Afisha publishes leading entertainment content magazines and web-sites Afisha.ru and NightParty.ru while Rambler operates a leading online portal in Russia, Rambler.ru.

Rambler‘s search market share in Russia decreased from 4.9% in March 2009 to 2.6% in June 2010, according to LiveInternet.ru. Rambler‘s advertising revenues declined over the past year. The expenses declined even faster, which improved operational profitability but that may be not enough for Olga Turischeva to stay in. She could re-join Vimpelcom (Beeline) where she worked prior to Rambler.
Continue reading “Rambler to Merge with Afisha – New CEO Nikolay Molibog from Afisha” »

If you are like me, you love trains and subways.  So it was with great excitement that I learned about a new feature on Google Maps that allows you to take a virtual tour or trip from your chair.

Imagine taking a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad in Russia. The full trip is over 5,600 miles and crosses over 7 timezones! That’s the equivalent mileage of flying from NYC to San Francisco and back! And the weather in Siberia is crazy – my friend Svetlana, who lives in the region, is always telling me stories of temps that reach -40F without the wind chill. Currently the weather is forecasted for a high of -25F and a low of -52F. A show on TV last year documented how they built the Trans-Siberian railroad — just an amazing human feat to create the system.

The Google Maps virtual journey from Moscow-Vladivostok takes you through 12 regions and 87 cities. The virtual journey is a partnerhip between Google and the Russian Railways. The trip (see screenshot below) allows you to imagine  yourself on the train looking out the window. You can look at books, listen to the fake train sounds or change the music to a local Russian radio station and a variety of other sounds as well.  I wish they would have recorded the actual train sounds. You can even listen to a recording of War and Peace. The YouTube video allows you to see the video and the Google Maps map below the video lets you see your progress on the trip. There are several camera positions throughout the trip so you can see photos from the location.

Continue reading “Take a Virtual Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railroad” »

Yakov Sadchikov, President & CEO of visual search engine Quintura, has put together the following list of the top 10 CEOs of Internet companies located in Russia.

1. Arkady Volozh, CEO, Yandex (largest Russian search engine and contextual advertising provider).

2. Dmitri Grishin, CEO, Mail.ru (largest Russian online portal).

3. Alexey Basov, CEO, Begun (second largest contextual advertising provider in Russia).

4. Sergey Ryzhikov, CEO, 1C-Bitrix (leading web-site CMS vendor in Russia).

5. Alexander Lyskovsky, President, Alawar Entertainment (largest casual games developer and publisher in Russia and Eastern Europe).

6. Pierric Duthoit, CEO, WomanJournal (largest Russian women-centric online portal).

7. Nikita Sherman, CEO, Drimmi (social games company); formerly, President, Odnoklassniki.ru (leading social network); and President, Mamba (largest Russian online dating platform).

8. Natalya Kaspersky, co-founder & CEO, InfoWatch (leading data leak protection provider); co-founder & former CEO, Kaspersky Lab (internet security software vendor); angel investor, “А-я-яй.ру” (iii.ru).

9. Sergey Orlovsky, CEO, Nival Group (leading online games developer and publisher).

10. Oskar Hartmann, CEO, KupiVIP.ru (largest Russian online shopping club).

Almaz Capital Partners and Cisco have announced the first two investments from their Almaz Capital Russia Fund I today. The fund was originally setup in July of 2008 with $30 million from lead investor Cisco. The first two investments are with Apollo and Parallels. The specific amount of each investment was not disclosed.

Apollo was founded in Russia in 2006 and is described as, "an early-stage company that allows digital communities and social networking sites to effectively extend their services to mobile devices."

Parallels creates virtualization and automation software and is popular among the Apple crew. The company employs over 700 people across most parts of the world. 

Yakov has more details on the investments from the Russian perspective.

Yakov at Quintura has a post today discussing the state of the Russian online advertising market. That data comes from Russian media site MindShare Interaction. Yakov notes, "the Russian contextual advertising accounted for 8.9 billion rubles ($357 million) or 60 percent of total online advertising spending, while display advertising accounted for 5.8 billion rubles ($233 million) or 40 percent of the total spending."

The top categories were: automobile manufacturers, consumer goods, industrial equipment manufacturers and home appliance manufacturers. The list seems similar to that of the U.S.

Russian search provider Yandex controls over 70% of the contextual advertising market in Russia. For reference, Google controls 8% of the contextual ad market.

Check out our in-depth interview with Yandex CTO Ilya Segalovich. Yandex was also rated one of the top 10 Web sites in Russia by GOAL.