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while all of its main ecosystem elements, as well as services with less powerful brands, are set to be branded VK. MAIL's already widely recognized services such as Odnoklassniki and its email service, as well as partially owned services such as Delivery Club or Citymobil, are set to retain their brands, although there will be a visual link with VK. My.Games, which is oriented towards foreign markets, is also set to keep its brand. Generally, the decision on whether to rename acquired or partially owned services, as well as those oriented towards foreign markets, will be the responsibility of the group’s internal branding committee.
VK (formerly Mail.ru Group) posted 3Q21 results in October. Revenues were up 19% y-o-y at R30.4 bln, while EBITDA grew 28% to R8.4 bln (the margin up 2.0 pp y-o-y at 27.7%).
Advertising revenues increased 28.2% y-o-y to R11.2 bln (versus 38.8% in 2Q21); for comparison, Yandex's ad revenues grew 27% on a LFL basis. Community IVAS revenues grew 5.7% y-o-y after falling 2.3% in 2Q21, the growth driven by music revenues. MMO game revenues were down 0.8% to R8.8 bln and overall game revenues were up 2.3% to R10.1 bln (they were down 6.0% and up 1.0% in 2Q21) given the high base and no new game launches in the quarter. The games EBITDA margin came in at 24.0%, up from 20.2% in 3Q20. Ed-tech revenues grew 56% y-o-y to R2.5 bln, supported by the ongoing course expansion. The company now expects ed-tech revenues to exceed R10 bln in 2021 (up from "at least R9 bln"), with the segment's EBITDA margin further improving in 4Q21.
Delivery Club's gross revenues grew 53% y-o-y to R4.0 bln in 3Q21 (42% y-o-y in 2Q21), with orders up 45% to 22 mln (Yandex.Eats' net revenues were up 63%). Samokat's gross revenues were up 4.5-fold y-o-y to R9.5 bln (versus 3.9-fold in 2Q21), while the number of dark stores reached 758 (Lavka had 395 dark stores and posted R6.7 bln in revenues). Citymobil's rides fell 9% to 44.6 mln and its GMV rose 9% to R14.6 bln, following increases of 40% and 100% in 2Q21 (Yandex.Taxi's rides were up 44% y-o-y, while its GMV was up 63%).
VK reported a net loss of R1.3 bln for the quarter. This factors in its share in the losses of equity-accounted associates and JVs, including O2O JV (a R3.9 bln loss, about flat Q-o-Q) and AER JV (a R1.2 bln loss, after a R0.5 bln loss in 2Q21).
Revenue guidance for 2021 was downgraded to R124-127 bln from R127-130 bln, while the EBITDA margin is now expected to slightly widen.
Mail.ru announced on 5 October, that its EdTech arm Skillbox Holding had merged with SkillFactory. As a reminder, Skillbox Holding already combines the education assets Skillbox and GeekBrains, and MAIL is the holding’s majority shareholder. Before the deal, MAIL already held a minority stake of 18.31% in SkillFaсtory and an option to purchase an additional stake in 2H21. After a number of transactions (including the exercising of an option), Skillbox is set to hold a controlling 61.8% stake in SkillFactory. The value of the transaction was not disclosed. SkillFactory’s founders and executives will
156 RUSSIA Country Report November 2021 www.intellinews.com