Page 166 - RusRPTJan23

But in 2022, Sber increased its unmanned fleet and even overtook Yandex in terms of its size: according to the latest data, the bank now has 180 equipped vehicles (Yandex, we recall, has 160). True, Sber cars have not yet managed to catch up with the competitor in terms of the number of test kilometres: 1mn km for SberAvtoTech versus 23mn km for Yandex.
But this does not mean that the bank is ready to invest in unmanned cars no matter what. According to two The Bell interlocutors in the market, this replenishment was planned back in 2021. But with the prospects for the future of SberAvtoTech, everything is not so clear yet, one of them claims. Prior to the start of the war, the company planned to withdraw business in the UAE, but these plans were forced to be abandoned. “Now Sberbank is confused: what to do and where to move on, the company does not represent yet. So far, development is proceeding by inertia, ”continues the interlocutor of The Bell. At the time of this writing, SberAvtoTech did not respond to our request.
In the meantime, the chances of an early launch of an unmanned taxi are rapidly decreasing - and the point is not only that Russia does not have the hardware needed for unmanned aerial vehicles, but also that buying a new ordinary car has become a non-trivial task. In the meantime, Sber has found a new experiment for itself - an unmanned truck, much better suited to the current political rhetoric.
● Wildberries
Russians almost doubled their purchases to 106.4bn rubles on Wildberries during the Black Friday sale held on the marketplace on November 18–Monday compared to the previous year, the company said on Wednesday in a statement. The number of orders more than doubled on the year, Wildberries said. The customers preferred everything necessary for New Year and presents for the kin with discounts.
Wildberries, whose owner, Tatyana Bakalchuk, was on the supervisory board of the fully sanctioned Kremlin bank, VTB, is taking the lead in the race to dominate Russia’s vast and growing ecommerce market but may get sanctioned.
With 279mn monthly visitors Wildberries is among the largest online retailers in the world, and continues to profit freely. Compared with other Russian e-commerce competitors, whose profits pale in comparison, Wildberries is reporting enormous profits, a big chunk of which are going to the Russian state budget through taxes. During the first 9 months of 2022, the company reported a turnover of nearly $7bn (RUB420.2bn). With such scale of profit and financial contribution to the Kremlin, it is unlikely that Wildberries will remain unsanctioned for long.
166 RUSSIA Country Report January 2023 www.intellinews.com