Page 7 - bne_Tech_03_2019

Top Stories
March 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
chain, increasing the assortment, and engaging new audiences, including TV ads.
Like many other retailers in its niche, Wildberries started out selling women's clothing from the German Otto and Quelle catalogues, but has since branched out to cover kids clothes, shoes, accessories, books, sport, electronics and home & dacha, to name a few of the categories.
Analysts say that one of the things that keeps Wildberries in the lead is the effort and invest- ment it has put into its distribution system. The company’s main rival is Ozon Holdings where growth is being held back by an inadequate fulfilment system.
And the growth in Bakalchuk’s wealth is unlikely
Russian government still hot on blockchain and cryptocurrencies for the financial sector as a digital law takes shape
Vladimir Kozlov in Moscow
The hype surrounding blockchain and cryptocur- rencies is subsiding, but Russian authorities are still hot on using the technology and digital as- sets in the country's financial system.
Since blockchain and cryptocurrencies were first seriously discussed by senior Russian official and legislators over a year ago, their attitudes the underlying technology have been mostly am- biguous or extremely cautious. The most ardent enemies of cryptocurrencies totally dismissed them as a "fraud."
to stop there. The volume of sales of Russia’s e-commerce grew 19% in 2018 to RUB1.15bn in Russian stores and another RUB348bn that was spent in foreign online stores, up 29%.
Russia’s e-commerce is only starting to mature now and still has plenty of growing room. Accord- ing to research conducted by the global market research company Nielsen, 90% of Russians have made at least one online purchase in the last ten years as a result of a growing consumer trust in online stores.
And according to the Russian Association for Electronic Communications, almost two-thirds of the domestic e-commerce increase last year was delivered by growth at Wildberries and Ozon between them.
The Russian government is still hot on the idea of using blockchain and cryptocurrencies in the financial sector as a draft digital law takes share
Last year, the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russian Parliament, attempted to adopt a law on digital assets that would create a legislative basis for the use of crypto in Russia.
However, the draft law, adopted in the first read- ing, was criticized by the crypto community as too restrictive, and the legislators began dragging their feet when it came to amending the draft in
a crypto-friendlier way.
The draft has been under revision for months,