Page 105 - RusRPTAug19

Chinese videogames publisher iDreamSky Technology Holdings, Reuters reported on August 1 citing unnamed industry sources. The companies will be producing games for local markets and are preparing the release of War Robots in China. As reported by bne IntelliNews, Mail.ru has been building up online gaming and cybersports portfolio for years, acquiring the developer of War Robots Pixonic for $30mn back in 2016. In 2018 Mail.ru acquired one of the largest cybersports holdings in the world Esfroce for $100mn. In July 2019 Mail.ru has agreed to transfer a 51% stake in Esforce to Moder Pick, a company producing racing video games.
Chinese e-commerce major AliExpress will start making distribution deals with Russian retail chains, as well as SMEs, the representative of AliExpress in Russia Anton Panteleev told Kommersant daily on July 29. Earlier this year AliExpress said it will open its global platform for Russian vendors. Its parent Alibaba closed a major joint venture deal with Mail.ru internet major, MegaFon mobile operator, and Russian Direct Investment Fund. Now AliExpress will also start to distribute most popular non-food items in regional retail chains, according to Panteleev. It is planned that the distributors will be able to connect to b2b ordering platform to book AliExpress supplies, similarly to the functioning of Alibaba in China. AliExpress already made a deal with regional electronics store chain Ast-Market, and is also negotiating with one of largest retailers Dixy.
Russian lawmakers have suggested a cap of 20% for foreign ownership in "significant" Russian internet companies in a bill submitted to State Duma by Anton Gorelkin.Previously in 2018 Gorelkin also introduced a bill limiting foreign ownership in online news aggregators, most notably Yandex.Novosti of Russia's private internet major and most valuable digital company Yandex. The Bell reported on July 25 citing unnamed sources that the latest bill also targets Yandex and has been designed by Kremlin in the presidential administration. Yandex N.V. is registered in the Netherlands, 85% of its share capital is floated on NASDAQ and 49.2% of the votes are held by the founder Arcady Volozh, who also has Maltese citizenship. The potentially damaging news came the same week that Russia's largest bank Sberbank said it would boost Yandex main rival Mail.ru with a joint venture and almost $1bn investment in the food delivery and taxi business.
US music streaming service Spotify plans to launch on the Russian market this summer and intends to undercut rival Apple Music, Russian website Akket.com reports. The music streaming service was supposed to launch in the country in 2015, before abruptly cancelling those plans. Now Spotify will likely launch later this year at a monthly RUB150 ($2.35), which is priced lower than Apple Music. Apple’s platform starts at RUB169 ($2.65) and does not feature a free ad-supported tier. Spotify has yet to announce the launch, though a screengrab of the upcoming service has already leaked. Separately, a report in Russia’s Cnews.ruclaims that the RUB150 offer is imminent. Spotify ended the first quarter of this year with 100mn premium subscribers, up 32% (+25m) year-on-year. Russia, with a population of 143.9mn people is the world’s 23rd largest recorded music market, which was worth $98.4mn in 2018, according to the IFPI.
Russia's online store Wildberries posted 79% increase in sales in 1H19 to RUB85bn ($1bn), the company said on July 4. The number of customers in 2Q19 increased by 85%, which was attributed to expansion of the product line and of own network of pick-up points. Fashion e-commerce retailer Wildberries was Russia’s biggest e-commerce online store in 2018 according to a new
105 RUSSIA Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com