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October 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
Russia's largest lender
Sberbank reinvents itself
as a tech company
Apple and Google, as well as local tech giants, such as Yandex.
From digital transformation to tech leadership Sberbank's drive towards tech comes as no surprise. For the last few years, the lender has been involved in a major digital transformation and addition of cutting-edge services, which earned it a reputation as the country's most innovative bank.
For roughly a year, Sberbank has been positioning itself as "a tech company with a banking license" rather than a traditional financial institution.
"Financial companies attempt to fulfill a specific demand for financial products and services while tech companies try to fulfill very different needs of a consumer, and we think of ourselves in the same way," Sberbank's Chief Technology Officer David Rafalovsky said in a recent interview with Computer Weekly.
"Trust me, we are not going to forget how to provide mortgages, consumer loans and other financial products to our 100mn active customer base, but we would like to offer additional products and services, making the consumer happier as a result," he added.
For years, Sberbank has been pushing for a stronger presence in Russia's digital economy, making substantial investments in tech solutions, ranging from the cloud service platform SberCloud to driverless vehicles.
Still, the launch of hardware products as well
as several new services, takes Sberbank's digital switch to a new level, introducing what the lender advertises as the "largest transformation in its history."
New products, new strategy
On September 24, Sberbank announced the logo change and unveiled a number of new devices and services that are expected to solidify its reputation in the tech sector.
Sberbanks new gadgets include SberBox, a TV streaming device, and SberPortal, a smart speaker with a screen that offers gesture and voice recognition.
SberBox will retail at RUB2,990 ($30) and will be connected to the online video streaming service Okko, offering users a free premium subscription for a month.
Sberbank has also launched a family of virtual assistants, Salute, modelled on Apple’s Siri, Hey Google or Amazon’s Alexa, and, as the company puts it, offering "more emotional attachment" than virtual assistants from the world's leading techs.
Virtual assistants are built into all Sberbank's devices and mobile apps.
In another move, the lender is adding coding
tools to its marketplace platform, SmartMarket, enabling businesses and entrepreneurs to produce their own apps under a revenue-share model. Sberbank says it will only take money from apps that charge users.
In addition, Sberbank has acquired the music streaming service Zvuk and rebranded it as SberZvuk in a bid to compete with local leader Yandex.Music, as well as Apple Music and recently launched Spotify.
Competition from Yandex
Sberbank says that it is going to take advantage of its almost 100mn active banking customers in Russia, offering them the new services and products.
The established presence is certainly going to give Sberbank a competitive edge over Western tech giants, which have been hesitant to step up their