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bne November 2018 Companies & Markets I 19
bne:Tech
Russia's Yandex acquires coupon aggregator Edaadeal
IntelliNews Pro
Russia's internet services major Yandex acquired 100% of discount and coupon aggregator Edadeal, RBC business daily said on October 2, citing the founder of the start- up and ex-product manager of Yandex Natalia Shagarina.
As reported by bne InelliNews, Edadeal is taking the Russian online retail business by storm, and is fomenting a revolution by offering punters a cashback reward for buying a product.
Shagarina founded the company in 2012, with Yandex acquir- ing the first 10% in 2015 for an undisclosed amount. Analysts estimated that Edadeal could be valued at RUB600mn-800mn ($9mn-12mn).
“I didn't set the company up because I had a good idea that I thought would make a lot of money,” Shagarina told bne IntelliNews in March. “I was just concerned with solving problems that affect my own personal life.”
The concept of the Edadeal site is simple. The home page looks like an online grocery store with lists of products you can buy – everyday things like groceries, cleaning products, pizzas, cosmetics – the kind of things that fill every family’s weekly shopping basket.
The clever bit is the site works with retail stores and works out what is the most valuable way to buy these things for you. That doesn't just mean saving money – although discounts and deals are a big part of the offering – but it also takes into account how far away the various shops are from you and from each other and how much you like (or dislike) going to each shop.
As of September Edadeal had over 6.2mn users, while Media- Scope estimates that in August in large Russian cities the Edadeal app was 19th most popular website in Russia with 7mn visitors. Over 650 retailers and 50 top producers of fast moving consumer goods are partnered with Edadeal.
Russian cross-border online shopping up by 24% to over $5bn as of June
IntelliNews Pro
In the first half of 2018 the cross-border spending of Russian online shoppers jumped by 24% year-on-year to $5.2bn, RBC daily reported on October 4 citing the data by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). In the first quarter alone cross- border e-commerce was up by 35% to $2.72bn and moderated to 13.8% growth to $2.48bn in the second quarter, possibly due to ruble weakening.
The Association of Internet Trade Companies (AKIT) previ- ously expected cross-border online trade to reach RUB470bn- 480bn ($6.9bn-7.3bn) for 2018 overall. But the numbers having reached $5.2bn by the end of June already made AKIT
revise the outlook to record-high $11bn-12bn, up from $8.9bn seen in 2017.
The second half of 2018 is expected to have higher cross- border online trade due to holiday discounts in Chinese online stores in November and higher spending of Russians in the end-of-the-year holiday season, the head of AKIT Artem Soko- lov commented to RBC.
Foreign online retailers have recently improved the delivery terms to Russia, are exempt from VAT, excise duties, and Russian red tape such as certification or online cash registers, Sokolov added.
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