What’s Next for Social Russia?

As Facebook is far from the main Russian social network, the industry is highly competitive and global players are tempted to dive in the fight.

Social media Odnoklassniki is competing with leader of the market Vkontakte, his CEO Ilya Shirokov now claims that the gap in users is less than 5%, from 50% a few years ago. With the increasing Internet penetration in the region, “the Russian-speaking market for social medai will double in the next few year” according to him, providing his company, and others, with a lot of opportunities

There’s an increasing proximity betwen different social media, but beware of negative reactions from users: “we were pushed back by users when we tried automatic content cross uploading to Odnoklassniki & MM” admitted Shirokov. Users had two social media profiles for two separate circles that did not overlap.

From left to right: Ilya Shirokov (CEO of Odnoklassniki), Gene Sokolov  Head of Badoo Russia and moderator Jamillah Knowles (UK Editor, The Next Web)

Global player Badoo is making a push at the moment to get in the Russian market. This social network, whose specifity is to find new contacts instead of connecting existing ones, but has also been used for dating, now claims a growth of several thousands new members per day in the country.

Both panelists agreed that mobile phone has a much higher penetration potential for the developing world and both websites tried e-commerce, another hope for revenues in social media. Badoo even created its own payment plugin and both accepts many means of payment, like SMS.

Ilya Shirokov (CEO of Odnoklassniki)

For Shirokov, the future remains “hard to predict. Blogs were thought to be the end of the story, then social media arrived and they changed. Social changed everything, sharing photos, games, the trend continues with music and video”.

Curation, that is having your social networks do tailored recommendation to its users based on the infos they have on them, is a aspect Odnoklassniki is going to develop in the immediate future, announced its CEO. Immediatly, Sokolov interjected that curation has to be done right and that he never saw one good example online.

For him, the future of social media is threefold: “local, instant and connected to the real world.”

Travel Market: How Russian Websites Win Over Global Players

With 40 to 45% of all spendings online dedicated to travel purchases, the competition among service providers, especially booking websites, is fierce.

So when four of the main competitors for the Russian online travel markets were gathered for DLD Moscow, the stage turned for a second into a (lighthearted) face-off when two of the speakers, as they introduce themselves, claimed the title for second-most used Russian travel booking site.

Marina Kolesnik, co-founder & CEO of Oktogo.ru

Despite being competitors, the panel agreed on key aspects explaining the success of Russian websites.

First, the need to educate the customers regarding online transaction. If 70% of Russian internet users read reviews online before booking trips or hotel, only 10% of travel purchases are done online.

Solutions include finding the customers’ confort zones: over the phone or face-to-face bookings by partner businesses. This also provide a solution for Russia’s cash economy, as “50% of Oktogo’s customers aren’t paying by credit cards”, CEO Marina Kolesnik said. One must be an online company with offline mentality

Word-of-mouth and social media referral are crucial. Tetyana Hrek, CEO of the #1 User-Generated Travel reviews site in Russian, argued that the success of the reviews is the fact that they were in Russian and not anonymous, since users log in from their social media profile to post.

Serge Faguet, co-founder and CEO of Ostrovok.ru

For Serge Faguet, co-founder and CEO of Ostrovok.ru, in the travel market, local players often win over global players: in reviews, in marketing and in partnerships on the ground. The large share of independent hotels (95%), the tourism visa regulations and the language also gives local players several advantages over global booking online companies.

As a result, in 2012, with the exception for Booking.com,  international players are sitting on the side line of the Russian market. But for how long?

In Russia’s Cash Economy, Finance and IT Go Hand in Hand

DLD Moscow was the occasion to hear from experts and key players on IT and finance in Russia. A very helpful endavour when one realizes that there is a “Russian Paradox” as moderator Adrien Henni puts it. In short, Russia is still very much a cash economy, more so than India. Moreover, the Russian online banking penetration is only 6%

Maxim Nogotkov (left) and Cindy Padnos (founder of Illuminate Ventures)

However, thanks to new technologies, Russian entrepreneurs are developping services to cater to the specific needs of their local customers. For instance, Maxim Nogotkov, who made a fortune launching cell phone company Svyaznoy, transformed his 3000 mobile phones shops to promote the banking products of Svyaznoy Bank.

“We have a full banking licence” underlines the man who, according to Forbes, is now a billionaire. This position puts him at the crossing of the growth of smartphones and mobile payment, 2 very promising markets in Russia, as the shift from cash payment is slowly taking place.

Boris Kim

Talking about key player don’t begin to describe Boris Kim’s role in the Russian banking world. It’s simple, last year, more than half of the population of Russia used at some point one of Kim’s QIWI services.

Recognized as an integral part of Russian internet life, Qiwi’s products ranges from the omnious cash collecting kiosks to purchase online to more recent launchs like the QIWI virtual visa card, mobile apps, electronic wallets. Kim offered the audience some lessons for success: growth through cannibalization, using cloud money and getting mobile and social.

We’re on a boat!

DLD Moscow is about more than disruptive minds and brilliant ideas. Soothing music, good company and a dash of glamour is also part of the DLD Moscow experience.

To get the creativity flowing, the DLD Chairmanship hosted a out-of-the-ordinary Cocktail Party on Sunday evening, taking place on the beautiful River Boat Moscow. 

The boat departed from the Kiev Station quay, and took conference’s guests on an unforgettable three-hour trip through spring-time Moscow with a first-row view from the Moskva river. 

Friends were made, opinions were exchanged and glasses were raised. A night of splendor with a sparkle of luxury - a perfect start before things take off at the Digital October on Monday at 9am.