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bne Tech
June 21, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
retail capabilities, teaming up with Courier Service Express (KSE) to deliver online orders to X5 stores Pyaterochka, Perekrestok, and Karusel, as well as door-to-door grocery deliveries.
Previously in February 2019 X5 announced plans to develop a parcel lockers network via a joint venture with Pickpoint, Russia's largest operator of parcel lockers and pick-up points.
Russian internet major Mail.ru launches own voice assistant
Russian internet major Mail.ru launched its own voice assistant called Marusya in test mode, Vedomosti daily reported citing unnamed sources.
Reportedly, Marusya's functionality is currently limited to information queries and launching music from Mail.ru's social network VKontakte, which could later be expanded to food delivery, e-commerce, ordering taxi, etc.
Vedomosti claims that the development of the assistant cost $2mn. In May 2018 Mail.ru's main rival Yandex unveiled an AI-driven voice assistant Alisa, analogous to Apple's Siri, Amazon's
Alexa, and Google Home assistants, which was integrated in Yandex's smart speaker and voice
X5 is in intense rivalry with its largest competitor Magnit and smaller retailers. As Russian super- market chains are running up against the limits to growth, X5 has stepped up its investments in online retailing solutions.
Magnit has also invested in (physical) pharmacy assets, in 2018 finalising the acquisition of 100% of pharmaceutical wholesaler and distributor SIA Group, but the move was unpopular with analysts.
Russian internet major Mail.ru launched a voice assistant Marusya in test mode
assistant device Yandex.Station (Yandex.Stanciya).
Alisa is also integrated into Yandex.Avto system that will be installed on the dashboards of over 2mn vehicles produced by Avtovaz, a major recent win for Yandex.
The launch of Mail.ru's Marusya "is expected and a natural move for one of the largest internet companies in Russia," BCS Global Markets commented on June 17.
"It has a wide set of services to integrate into the assistant, which could offset it having less expertise in search and speech recognition (basis for voice aid), for instance, Yandex," BCS GM analysts note.