State support was entered into the software – Newspaper Kommersant No. 238 (7439) dated 12/22/2022

The Ministry of Digital Development has approved about 70 projects of new system-wide software (NOPO), which should replace foreign counterparts. Among the developers are Rostelecom, Kaspersky Lab, 1C, VK and other companies that will invest about 70 billion rubles in projects until 2030. The authorities promise to provide guaranteed demand. But such measures, according to market participants, may lead to the emergence of monopolists in certain software segments.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the “road map” for the development of “New system-wide software” in Russia until 2030, which was approved by the government on December 16. It follows from the document that until 2030, domestic developers will invest more than 70 billion rubles in their products and services. The documents were prepared within the framework of industrial competence centers (ICC) and Competence Centers for the development of system-wide and applied software (ICC). Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, the Ministry of Digital Finance, the Ministry of Economy and others are named responsible for the implementation of the road map.

The Roadmap is built on the basis of the already existing New Communications Internet Technologies map developed in August 2020 under an agreement of intent between the government and Rostelecom. In the new document, it is planned to include 1C, Kaspersky Lab, VK and the Competence Center for Import Substitution of ICT among the structures involved in the implementation of the “map”.

Budget sources of funding are not given in the document, but it is noted that 90 projects are planned to be implemented through state grants. Now there are about 70 approved projects in the road map, but Dmitry Chernyshenko’s office stated that the road maps of NOPO and NIPO (“New Industrial Software”) “are open in nature”, new companies and projects can be included in them. Now, in the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Kommersant clarified that the “cards” will be financed as part of the Digital Technologies federal project: “The amount of budget funds is being specified and will be determined when updating the budget parameters for these articles.”

Among the approved projects at NOPO, in particular, is Wink, a service for viewing video content from Rostelecom, on which it is planned to develop user-generated content. Rostelecom requested 1.16 billion rubles for it. credit funds (see “Kommersant” dated November 10). In total, about five projects were approved by the operator. VK has approved a project to create a Russian game “engine” (a tool for developing computer games), it is planned to invest 2.8 billion rubles in it. (see Kommersant of November 11). VK and Rostelecom declined to comment.

The road map also formulated the task of creating an industry venture fund by 2023, the investment capital of which by 2030 will amount to 30 billion rubles. The Internet Initiatives Development Fund and the Ministry of Digital Development will be responsible for the project, and they want to allocate 600 million rubles to manage it in 2024–2030.

By 2030, it follows from the documents, 71% of the Russian market for general system and application software will be domestic, the expected revenue from projects will be 211 billion rubles, and the audience of Russian social networks and instant messengers will reach 120 million users. According to the results of the third quarter, the monthly audience of VKontakte amounted to 76.9 million people, Odnoklassniki — 37 million people.

Since most of the projects should be financed by developers, the Ministry of Digital Development is preparing a new support mechanism, which consists in the fact that the state guarantees demand for development through an anchor customer, says Alexei Smirnov, head of the Basalt SPO board of directors, head of the Operating Systems Central Development Center. Experts associated the introduction of such a mechanism with a budget deficit (see Kommersant of December 13).

About 80% of the projects submitted to the TCC and TsKR were rejected because there was no customer for them, clarified a Kommersant source in the IT market. Many, he adds, have requested support for technologies already on the market, such as video conferencing systems. Kommersant’s interlocutor sees a serious risk that monopolists may appear in a number of development segments following the implementation of the road map. In addition, the Kommersant source adds, in the event that sanctions are eased, Russian customers may again start buying foreign software, leaving domestic developers without orders.

Timofei Kornev, Yuri Litvinenko