Page 24 - bne magazine November 2021_20211104 uzbekistan risding

24 I Companies & Markets bne November 2021
Russian or not Russian?
“I believe our guys’ success abroad has the potential to markedly improve the situation in Russia, and to fuel growth in the domestic market,” writes Dabbakh, with a touch of optimism.
These international successes also pose a methodological issue: can the amounts amassed abroad by companies registered outside Russia be included in Russian venture data just because their founders are or were Russian and, in certain cases, because these companies are keeping an R&D team in Russia?
For example, Acronis’s $250mn round in May this year
is included in Dsight’s stats, even though the company is headquartered in Switzerland and has its executive team located outside Russia – which is arguably safer for a cybersecurity company these days – while its founder, Russian- born Serguei Beloussov, has long been presenting himself as being a Singaporean, not Russian, citizen. The round itself
was led by CVC, a major international private equity firm based in Luxembourg with little if any connections with Russia.
Facebook and Google exposed to record fines for not removing unlawful content
in Russia
East West Digital News in Moscow
Russia could impose record fines on Facebook and Google (held responsible for YouTube) for not removing prohibited content. Since these companies are accused of repeated violations, fines could be in the range of 1/20 to 1/10 of the yearly revenues they generate in Russia, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN).
Thus Facebook, which makes around RUB10bn ($138mn) per year in the country, according to an expert estimate cited by Vedomosti, could have to pay anything between RUB500mn ($6.9mn) and RUB1bn ($13.7mn). A court decision is still required to enact the fines.
In an exchange with the business daily, a representative of Roskomnadzor, the internet and telecom regulator, described the violations as follows:
“YouTube systematically fails to comply with the requirements to remove prohibited content. Since 2014, more than 3,000 illegal materials containing child pornography,
www.bne.eu
The emergence of angel networks
Among the interesting trends observed by Dsight is the growing share of early-stage business angel investments in Russia. Individual investors were not after numbers, concede the analysts, who identified only 31 deals involving them in H1 2021 – but they were after volumes, with total deal value doubling to $49mn and average deal value reaching some $2mn (+160% y/y).
“Angel clubs in Russia and investment volumes are only growing,” confirmed Alexey Solovyov, a figure of the Russian VC scene, in an exchange with East-West Digital News. He cited the example of AngelsDeck, the biggest BA community in the Russian-speaking space, which was involved in more than 70 deals this year.
“Russian angels invest collectively together with tier-one international funds. The emergence of business angel networks is perhaps the most significant trend this year in Russia,” Solovyov said.
Russia's telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor is threatening to hit Google and Facebook with massive fines if they don't delete objectionable content, some of it political.
suicidal, drug-related, fake, extremist and other content that are dangerous for Russian citizens have not been removed.”
“Facebook Instagram and Facebook have not removed over 2,000 illegal materials, including those containing child pornography, suicidal, drug-related, extremist content.”
“Extremist” is how the authorities now tend to refer to any anti-Kremlin content. They have engaged in a power struggle with Apple and Google, in particular, to have them remove
a sensitive app produced by their opponents in the run-up
to the September parliamentary election.
Growing pressure
Since the beginning of this year, Russian courts have been actively fining international online giants – from Facebook, to Google, to TikTok, to Twitter – for failing to remove unlawful content or to store personal data inside the country. However, the amounts have been rather modest so far, in the range of a few dozens of thousand US dollars.