Rostelecom decided to googling – Newspaper Kommersant No. 208 (7409) dated 11/10/2022
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Rostelecom requested funds from the Ministry of Digital Transformation for the development of the Wink online cinema, in particular, through cloud gaming and access to music. The company expects to receive 1.16 billion rubles. and double the subscriber base by the end of 2023. Wink already has, in addition to movies and series, blogging content, and music and video games are available in a general subscription with VK. But to attract users, combining services is not enough, experts are sure: the success of the project depends on the conditions of access to the media library.
“Kommersant” got acquainted with the passport of the project for the development of the Wink online cinema (owned by Rostelecom), sent to the Development Competence Center (CCD) “Multimedia Software”, which is supervised by the Ministry of Digital Development. It follows from it that Rostelecom Information Technologies LLC, which is responsible for the Wink website and applications, is requesting a “loan for the creation and modernization of the entertainment ecosystem.” Expenses are estimated at 1.16 billion rubles, 320 million rubles. of which it is planned to spend on the purchase of infrastructure facilities. The document says that the project has been approved. The Ministry of Digital Development did not comment on the status of the document.
CCR unite software developers by class, industrial competence centers (ICC) – representatives of different industries that need to replace foreign software. Both of them were created in the summer on behalf of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, their goal is to stimulate the development of the Russian IT market against the backdrop of the departure of foreign players. 37.1 billion rubles were allocated for import substitution of software, including through the FIC. until 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said in June.
Following the results of the project, music and games should appear in the Wink catalog, the latter through cloud gaming (remote access to games with broadcasting images from servers). The project also provides for the possibility of publishing user-generated content (UGC), but it is not clear from the document what exactly this is about. Rostelecom also indicated in the passport plans to introduce a free tariff with advertising in Wink. Now the service works on a paid subscription model, while part of the catalog (in particular, Soviet cinema) is available free of charge and without advertising. As part of the project, Wink expects to increase its user base to 6 million people by the end of 2023. In the reporting of Rostelecom for 2021, it is said that more than 3 million people have already subscribed to Wink.
Wink “has been developing as a multi-format platform for a long time,” Anton Volodkin, director of service development, told Kommersant. He said that the content of bloggers is already being published, undergoing verification with an age rating. Mr. Volodkin did not comment on plans to access video games. With regard to music, Rostelecom agreed to integrate the VK Music service: “We hope for good dynamics in this direction as well.” Now there are two subscriptions that combine access to the services of Rostelecom and VK: VK Music + Wink and VK Combo. The latest package also includes a discount on VK Play Cloud cloud gaming services. VK refused to discuss Wink’s plans.
Online cinemas, Russian or foreign, usually do not combine access to films and series with other types of content. YouTube (owned by Google) combines UGC and access to licensed movies and music, but this was preceded by the creation of separate streaming services under the Google Play brand. Cloud gaming service Google Stadia is integrated with YouTube, but not included in the subscription. In September, Google announced that Stadia would be shutting down on January 18th.
Rostelecom can succeed if it offers an updated Wink for a small additional payment to the main product – fixed access to the Internet, independent expert Dmitry Kolesov believes. If Wink uses the free model, it will be able to expand its audience to the desired 6 million users, says TelecomDaily CEO Denis Kuskov. However, he emphasizes, bundling services alone will not solve the problem of attracting users – a large advertising campaign will be needed. At the same time, the indicated expenses “seem to be minimal,” but they will be enough for the development of UGC, says CDNvideo CEO Yaroslav Gorodetsky. In general, he calls the plans of the service “reasonable”, since the Russian market for access to professional content, “maybe even tougher competition than the world.”
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