Unsystematic Runet – Newspaper Kommersant No. 154 (7355) of 08/24/2022

VK’s multi-stage deal to exit the joint venture with Sberbank and transfer Delivery Club to Yandex in exchange for Novosti and Zen services, in my opinion, has become one of the clear signs of the end of the era of digital ecosystems in the Russian Federation. The military actions in Ukraine and the subsequent large-scale sanctions have led to the fact that the concept of developing “comprehensive” platforms, including the delivery of food and goods, cinema, music, financial services, taxis and car sharing, has burst in Russia like a soap bubble.

Disabling Apple Pay and Google Pay payments in applications provoked an outflow of users, the departure of the largest Western rights holders led to the fact that online cinemas not only stopped receiving new items, but also began to lose the classics. Citizens, meanwhile, began to closely monitor subscriptions, excluding intersections between services.

J`son & Partners Consulting analysts drew attention to the trend back in July. Now, according to the company’s estimates, the three largest ecosystems – Yandex, Sberbank and VK – have divided assets in different directions so that the “universal platforms” have, in fact, crumbled. Sberbank began exiting non-core assets back in the spring. Yandex, having transferred Novosti and Zen to VK, has sharply reduced its presence in the media field, focusing on delivery and e-commerce. My sources say that the company may exit other services that it has identified as a separate business group (Kinopoisk, Music, Afisha, and fintech).

VK, on ​​the contrary, strengthens its presence in the media. The holding will receive not only Yandex platforms, but also traffic from yandex.ru, actively promotes VK Video and the musical direction (see Kommersant of August 23). But the VK ecosystem subscription may lose discounts on Delivery Club and Citydrive. In an interview with Kommersant, Nikolai Duksin, director of the music ecosystem and video content, said that the company would actively promote a separate subscription to the music service. It is for access to music, according to J`son & Partners Consulting, that more than 44% of users of ecosystem subscriptions pay.

Ecosystem degradation will continue. The major players may be followed by MTS and Tinkoff catching up with them. Thus, MTS’s net profit fell by 36.4% in the second quarter, and the company has already begun to close non-core areas, such as an express food delivery service. In Tinkoff, after the change of ownership, a lot of things change in general, and a number of services that were formally launched last year did not work. If until recently, market participants could afford to launch unprofitable projects to increase audience loyalty, now is the time to collect stones.