Microsoft Attracts Russia’s Advertisers
Microsoft launches in Russia its most popular Internet service, MSN, intending to display on its pages the adverts targeted at consumers of Russia. The analysts don’t think this project of Microsoft very promising. The country’s market of Internet advertising is captured by national players, which have yielded to no foreigner so far.
Formally, one of the most popular Internet services, MSN, is within the reach of Russia’s users. But it is visited by less than 1 percent of 23.7 million of Runet audience. MSN hasn’t been made Cyrillic until very recently and the data of potential interest to the Russians was scarce there.
Microsoft will set to targeting MSN at Runet users early next year, said representative of Moscow office of Microsoft. The MSN Messenger has been made the Russian-language already and the Russian mail service is being tested. In project are the service of online diaries and the Russian-language web-site of MSN. The launch of Microsoft promotion in Runet has been slated for next spring. At the same time, the company will set to attracting Russian advertisers, the source said without disclosing pay-back dates or budget of the project.
Market players say MSN’s foray into Russia is very illustrative. The turnover of Internet advertising here is around $100 million, and the foreigners realized they should take it into account, said Elena Kolmanovskaya, editor-in-chief of Yandex.
Russia’s market of Internet lacks advertising places, so the appearance of such big foreign player with high-grade traffic and advertising area will be vital for domestic market of Internet advertising, said Dmitry Ashmanov, general director at MindShare Interaction. “If MSN appears in Runet next year, it will be able to earn from $5 million to $10 million,” Ashmanov forecasted.
Potential competitors of MSN are rather skeptical about the project. “The expansion won’t be easy; Runet has its strong players – Yandex, Rambler, Mail.ru. Foreign services will hardly be able to win sizeable share on the market,” Kolmanovskaya forecasted.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 10, 2006
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