MTS reloads video – Kommersant

MTS will offer users of the WASD streaming service, which was preparing to relaunch, to switch to the new Nuum platform, which combines streaming, horizontal and vertical videos. The company expects that Nuum will be in demand amid restrictions on monetization on foreign video services; competitors VK Video and Rutube also hope for this. The new platform, market participants emphasize, will have to look for ways to attract both content creators and interested viewers.

MTS, which has been operating the WASD streaming service aimed at gamers since 2019, has launched a preliminary version of the Nuum video service. It, according to the site, allows you to upload horizontal and vertical videos and conduct live broadcasts. MTS explained to Kommersant that they see prospects in the user content market, “taking into account the restrictions and lack of monetization on foreign platforms.” The full launch of the service and presentation of the advertising model are scheduled for 2024, but for now users only have the opportunity to send donations to video authors. WASD, the company clarified, is “mothballed”, and its users will be offered to switch to a new product.

Back in the spring, MTS planned to relaunch WASD targeting the audience of general purpose video platforms – YouTube and TikTok (see Kommersant on March 15). The new service uses a brand that MTS already had: from December 2020 to April 2022, a financial service for gamers based on MTS Bank operated under the name Nuum. The Nuum video service, as follows from the information on its website, uses a solution from Tinkoff Bank – CloudPayments – to send donations. But MTS clarified that they plan to integrate Nuum with other elements of its own ecosystem, including the MTS Pay payment service.

Advertising on YouTube, as well as on other Google services, became unavailable in Russia after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. As a result, for example, VK and Gazprom-Media Holding (GPMH) intensified the promotion of their VK Video and Rutube platforms, including emphasizing the possibility of monetization. MTS also launched products to replace the functionality of international services: for example, a year ago the operator opened the AppBazar Android application store (see “Kommersant” dated November 22, 2022). VK declined to comment; GPMH did not respond to the request.

Content creators are “open to testing new platforms,” says CROS CEO Ekaterina Movsesyan. “The saturation of the market with services at the current stage is a plus, since competition is pushing sites to develop and search for more convenient formats,” she notes. But owners of video platforms have to reckon with the fact that the audience prefers platforms with the greatest variety of content, “and YouTube has everything,” emphasizes Kirill Tanaev, director of the Institute of Contemporary Media. “An entity that wants to compete with YouTube must offer a comparable library,” he says.

A Kommersant source involved in the work of one of the Russian video services called the main upcoming difficulty for the MTS service “solving the “chicken and egg problem””: “To attract traffic to the site, you need content. But content authors need traffic, and from conscious visitors.” According to him, this issue cannot be resolved only by concluding agreements with bloggers: “This is a good way to attract a user base, but a bad way to retain it. Viewers who come with the author also leave with him.”

Nuum, Kommersant’s interlocutor notes, will have to find a way to convince users to download videos, including without monetization: “In theory, they can take advantage of MTS’s subscriber base and conduct marketing campaigns aimed at its subscribers.” For example, another Kommersant source in the industry clarifies, you can top up your phone balance for viewing advertisements on the service. “Although it is premature to talk about any monetization system until the audience accumulates. Moreover, launching advertising when the user base is low can only scare it away,” he notes.

Yuri Litvinenko