A new project for Runet web-analysts, called Infact.ru, has just been launched. It is non-commercial, and the main target is to spread accurate data on the Russian Internet market to the Western media. This is a great initiative for those interested in Russian marketing and the guys behind this start-up are experts on the subject. [...]

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Yandex, the leading search engine in Russia has released their own branded version of the Chrome browser. It’s an interesting move to co-opt the browser technology associated with Google, and use it to further the Yandex brand. Isn’t Chrome Licensed To Google? Although Google holds trademarks on “Google Chrome” and “Chromium”, the terms “Chrome” or [...]

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Rossiiskaya Gazata reports that Internet advertising is continuing to take an ever larger share of the overall advertising market in Russia. Despite the economic downturn that has affected the overall spend. Internet advertising in Russia grew by 6 percent in 2009, up to 19 billion roubles (approx. $630.6m USD), while the whole advertisement industry in [...]

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After negotiations last year, Google won the contract away from Yandex to provide Mail.ru with contextual and organic search results. However, it’s become clear that instead of a transition from Yandex to Google, Mail.ru seems to have decided to go it alone and use results from their own in-house search engine Gogo.ru. This shouldn’t be [...]

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Kommersant reports that Yandex, Russia’s largest search engine, is considering purchasing AOL’s ICQ platform at more than $200m. ICQ has between 40m-50m registered users worldwide with the majority in Germany, Russia, Israel and Eastern Europe. In December of 2009 AOL announced that they would be restructuring and selling off some of that assets, including the [...]

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When I arrived in Russia 6 years ago, it was quite a surprise to find the Russians had adopted the Chinese Zodiac. From October onwards you see references to the coming animal sign all around; in advertising, promotions and products. It is very much part of the Russian New Year tradition. I guess this makes [...]

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The financial crisis has been hard on Russia, with direct foreign investment dropping 45% in the first half of 2009 to $6.1 billion. The economy is expected to shrink 8.5% this year and inflation is in double digits. Some commentators have even begun to refer to the “Bic” economies (Brazil, India, China) rather than the [...]

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ComScore has released a study of the global search market showing that more than 113 billion searches were conducted in July 2009, representing a 41% increase versus year ago. As expected Google was No.1 with 76.7 billion searches conducted, or 67.5% global market share. However the Russian portal, Yandex showed the fastest rate of growth [...]

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This week The Moscow Times has conducted a series of interviews on the state of e-marketing in Russia. Essential reading for anyone working in or considering expanding into RuNet. These should remain open to public viewing, follow the links below: Changes in Consumer Preference on the InternetBy Inessa Ishunkina, Project director TNS Russia RuNet of [...]

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The Russian law “About the State Regulation of Activities on Gambling” comes into effect tomorrow, forcing many casinos to shut their doors. . Although Vladimir Putin could not have foreseen the economic crisis when the law was proposed in 2006, the implementation could not have come at a worse time for Russia. An estimated 400’000 [...]

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