MTS will invest in vlogging
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As Kommersant found out, in the fall, MTS plans to launch its own video hosting in the hope of attracting part of the Russian YouTube and TikTok audience to it. The core of the project will be the already existing game streaming service WASD, which the operator wants to improve. At the first stage, MTS may invest about 1.5–2 billion rubles in it. However, experts are skeptical about the idea. In their opinion, it will be difficult for WASD to compete with similar services of VK, which can attract an audience through its social networks.
MTS is preparing to restart the game streaming service WASD, sources in the IT market told Kommersant. “In addition to broadcasting games, user-generated content should appear on the platform – movie reviews, vlogs (a blog where videos are the main content.— “b”), beauty blogs, and so on,” explained the interlocutor of Kommersant, who is familiar with the development of the project. According to him, after the restart, “the project should become an analogue of YouTube and TikTok.”
The restart of WASD, according to Kommersant, is scheduled for autumn. This will require an expansion of the server park, service functions, rebranding is possible, one of Kommersant’s interlocutors clarified. “The required amount of computing power has already been contracted, the team is expanding,” another Kommersant source added. An interlocutor in the IT market suggests that restarting WASD could cost 1.5-2 billion rubles. MTS declined to comment.
MTS launched WASD in 2019. Then the operator positioned the project as a platform for the development of solutions in the field of gaming, professional eSports and multimedia content. According to SimilarWeb, the number of visits to the WASD.tv website in February more than halved compared to January, amounting to 1.3 million. MTS did not disclose data on the current audience of WASD and the volume of investments in the project. Two Kommersant sources in the IT market say that at the beginning of the year, WASD left at least five key employees.
Rostelecom is also showing interest in developing its platform with user-generated video content. In November 2022, the company sent a project certificate for the development of the Wink online cinema to the Multimedia Software Development Competence Center, which is supervised by the Ministry of Digital Development. The company estimated expenses at the level of 1.16 billion rubles. (see Kommersant dated November 10, 2022). Rostelecom declined to comment.
MTS, within the framework of the WASD project, “continues to experiment with marketing hypotheses,” believes the founder of the rawg.ioe portal, Gadzhi Makhtiev: “Entering a wider audience does not guarantee anything, but, I suppose, it fits more clearly into the logic of the development of the MTS media platform than game streaming” .
Since 2019, WASD has not become in demand among streamers, so even a significant change in its development strategy will most likely not lead to an increase in the number of users, Vyacheslav Makarov, ex-Director of Wargaming Product, believes. In his opinion, VK, which has been developing the VK Play Live streaming service since the summer of 2022, “looks more promising.” “You need to understand that the VK streaming service is a platform that does not exist on its own, but in synergy with social networks, their game store, and cloud gaming service. This will allow the project to quickly increase its audience,” explains Mr. Makarov.
Streamers’ platforms are most attracted by technical features, content recommendations and the ability to monetize content without giving up a significant share of the platform, said Elisey Malyshev, head of VK Play Live.
VK, indeed, is “strongly moving” towards the development of streaming and video platforms, notes the head of the Moscow division of Lesta Games Gaukhar Aldiyarova, “but it’s still not so clear there either: the infrastructure has not been fully debugged, streamers, the main content supplier, complain about the lack of conditions , which could at least partially cover the losses from the once “feeding” sites (we are talking about Twitch, YouTube.— “b”), and the lack of the level of support they need from the service.
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