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restriction to such webpages on grounds of rights holders’ reference to the Moscow City Court. The draft law would also oblige search systems providers to delete information on such websites from the search results.
Russia’s Internet audience remained flat in 2016 at 70.4% of people aged over 16, or 84mn people, but will grow in 2017, according to market researcher GfK, reports Prime . “We think that the audience of the mobile Internet will continue growing in 2017. The smartphone potential from the point of view of mobile phones replacement – some 30% of sales in units are still presented by feature phones in Russia – we expect stable growth of sales of smartphones by 5% in 2017 in units,” GfK said in a statement. Russia has seen its online audience soar and overtook Germany in terms of the number of users two years ago. E-commerce is also booming as normal Russian’s seek to find bargains by shopping overseas in online stores.
Mobile internet users increased by 6mn people in 2016 to a total of 56mn
people aged over 16, or 46.6% of the whole audience. Smartphones has the fastest growing segment with the audience rising to 42.1% as of the end of 2016 from 37.2% in 2015. Web surfing on tablets remained flat.
Russia’s telecoms companies are at war, as competition for customers gets intense . Easily the most sophisticated part of the Russian economy, the sector still has some catching up to do with Western Europe - but not much. Customers are the big winners as prices tumble, but products and customer services are relentlessly growing. Telecoms was the first big sector that President Vladimir Putin reformed after taking office in 2000 and it went so smoothly that the fact that telephones work is now a given across the country. For much of the last two decades the race has to been to bring in new punters and build out the network to cover a country that stretches half way round the world. But after SIM card penetration passed 100% several years ago, the leading three mobile service providers – VimpelCom, Moscow TeleSystems (MTS) and Megafon – have become ever more aggressive in their strategies. The pressure was recently increased by the entrance of a fourth player – Tele2.
9.1.8 Tourism sector news
Russian tourists spent abroad 32.3% more in January 2017 than in the previous year , Vedomosti reported on February 21, citing data of Global Blue on VAT refunds in 43 European countries, Asia and Latin America. January 2016 saw the contrary trend as travelling Russians spent 22.7% less year-on-year. Russians began to spend more money abroad in October 2016 after an almost three-year period of decline. UBS new outlet quoted representatives of major international retailers, such as Germany's Kadewe Group and France's Galeries Lafayette as saying that they had also noticed the trend. Anna Podgornaya, general director of the travel agent Pegas Turistik, was quoted by Vedomosti as saying that the increase in Russian's foreign spending was prompted not only by the ruble's strengthening over 2016 against the main foreign currencies, but also by the fact that some goods are not available in Russia. However, the VIP travel segment is still far from bouncing back to pre-crisis levels, Podgornaya added.
In 2016 Russia was visited by more than 760,000 visa-free travelers from China, or 41% more than the year before , according to the press service of the Federal Tourism Agency. The growth of tourist flow from China's ministry
97 RUSSIA Country Report February 2017 www.intellinews.com