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Leaders
February 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
at the National Space Centre in Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan. They are also looking into establishing a joint venture to deploy a gateway station
in Kazakhstan for the subsequent exclusive distribution of OneWeb satellite internet to Central Asian nations, the Caucasus, Iran
and Afghanistan.
The MoU was signed by Steckel and the AIFC governor, Kairat Kelimbetov, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January where they discussed how OneWeb’s support will help carry out the “Digital Kazakhstan” programme.
Digital Kazakhstan
“Digital Kazakhstan aims to provide high-speed broadband across Kazakhstan by 2022, boosting the development of the country’s economy and improving the quality of life of Kazakhstani citizens by means of digital technologies. As
a part of this effort, Digital Kazakhstan seeks to expand the country’s telecommunication networks and prioritizes providing broadband access by satellite in 6,600 rural and remote communities,” OneWeb said in a statement in late January.
OneWeb plans to engage Kazakhstan’s telecom operators among its distribution partners to provide its high-speed, low-latency ‘fibre-like’ broadband connectivity across the country’s private and public sectors, which will include civil services, businesses, schools and hospitals.
“A technical hub serving the greater Central Asia region will also be one of the projects under consideration, enabled by existing space communications infrastructure in Kazakhstan. OneWeb is considering setting up a joint venture in the jurisdiction of AIFC to operate this Central Asia technical hub,” according to OneWeb’s statement.
Russian e-commerce could see market consolidation
The "big four" Russian e-commerce operators AliExpress Russia, Wildberries, Ozon and Beru are anticipated to grow in 2019-2022 at an annual rate of 39%, outgrowing the market that is seen as expanding at 23%, and achieving a total market share of 39% by 2022, Sberbank CIB analysts argue.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, the Russian e-commerce market in 1H19 expanded by 26% year on year to RUB725bn ($11bn), with the largest online retailers accounting for most of the growth.
The number of purchases online was 191mn in the reporting period, up by a record 44%.
Sberbank's report sees the share in overall retail sales over the period as continuing to rise from 6.1% to 9.5%, driven by growth in the number
of online shoppers (10% growth) and increased penetration into their wallets.
But Sberbank CIB analysts argue that "four strong players with developed ecosystems might be too many in a market of Russia's size for sustainable and profitable growth," and see "consolidation in the market is imminent. "
The bank argues that Beru, platform of Yandex. Market, a joint venture between Yandex and Sberbank valued at $1.14bn, still the smallest of the Big Four, might be at the centre of the consolidation push.
"The more developed an e-commerce market is, the more likely it is to have a dominant leading player," the report reminds, speaking of Amazon, with its share of 45% being 6.4 times larger
than the second biggest player. In China, leader Alibaba's 62% share is 2.5 times bigger, and in the UK, Amazon's 27% share is 2.6 times bigger.