European Technology Investors Return to Russian IT Market
The European Tech Tour Association (ETT), an independent organization committed to the development of emerging technology companies in Europe, announced its plans to organize the second Tech Tour visit to the Russian high tech sector. The Russian IT industry attracts foreign investments despite the turmoil in the financial markets since it is one the most promising sectors with the annual growth rate of 25%. The first Tech Tour in Russia resulted in investments into the domestic tech Yandex, Parallels, Acronis and SJ Labs. And as mentioned in Tech Tour announcement, the past few years brought to light a number of technology start-ups in application development, internet services and fables design which urge for the new visit. This time the projects will be selected in areas of new materials and processes, electronics equipment, software applications, voice and data transmission, value-added services and wireless solutions.
Russian SMBs to Invest $10 Billion in ICT in 2008
The recent AMI Partners research forecasts that small to medium businesses in Russia and Poland are to spend approximately $10 billion on ICT products in 2008, which represents 15 per cent growth from the past year’s volume. About 40 per cent of Russia's one million SMBs are equipped with personal computers and generate the highest ICT spending in the region. In addition to that, the report points out that Russia has experienced significant growth as a provider of IT outsourcing and software development. These factors make Russia one of the largest Eastern European markets by GDP and among the highest spenders on ICT in the region. Although the Russian ICT market has still been dominated by hardware sales, the share of IT services has been steadily growing over the past three months.
Russia's Sourcing Locations Make it to Top 50 Outsourcing Destinations
A recent study released by full-service strategic advisory firm for Global Outsourcing and Investments Tholons and Global Services announced the Top 50 outsourcing cities of choice in 2008. The research identified the locations that are globally recognized for their “specific” outsourcing services offerings as well as the ones that are establishing themselves as specialized locations for particular sourcing function. In a way, the choice of the right city has become more important than the choice of the country. It is rather the city (than the country), which represents a more accurate package of attributes that service providers seek. Source: Top 50 Emerging Global Outsourcing Cities St. Petersburg was selected as one of the established sourcing locations for engineering services and high-end R&D. With the large pool of talented engineering graduates, robust IT infrastructure and strong quality traditions, St. Petersburg has long been seen as one of the key outsourcing destination in Eastern Europe. Another Russian city mentioned in the report is Moscow which scored as an established location for product development and R&D and an emerging city for engineering services but lost seven points to St. Petersburg in the overall rating.
Russia's Mobile Internet Penetration Surpassed Average Europe's Figures
Russia scores third place in Europe and fourth in the world in terms of mobile Internet penetration. This year Russia ranks 4th in Mobile Internet Penetration, as 11.2% of Russian mobile users access the web through their cell phones, trailing only the U.S. (15.6%), UK (12.9%), and Italy (11.2%) and staying ahead of France, Germany and Spain, as revealed by the Mobile Media Marketplace. The report published by Nielsen Research shows that entertainment-themed websites are the most popular with mobile Internet users in the growing Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) mobile markets. “Mobile fills an important access gap in nations where Internet access is not always readily available in homes and schools. The development and uptake of mobile data services will have a tremendous positive impact on economies like Brazil, Russia, India and China.” Source: Nielsen, Mobile Media Marketplace report There are more than 17 million mobile users in Russia regularly access the Internet. The mobile data transmission market in Russia will increase from $400 million in 2007 to $4.8 billion in 2012, while the Russian mobile content market will grow from $800 million last year to $5.4 billion in 2012.
Moscow Becomes World’s Largest Wi Fi Hub
Moscow has become the unquestionable leader in the number of public Wi Fi hotspots, reports Laptop online magazine. Having been a runner up in Wi Fi spots for a few years, Moscow offers more than ten thousand places to get an easy access to the web, leaving London and Taipei behind. Recently, Russia has been placed on the 4th place in the world in Internet penetration and the total size of the Russian cellular market is estimated 167.7 million, giving the country a penetration rate of almost 120 per cent. Source: http://laptopmag.jiwire.com
Russia - 33 Million Internet Users and the Number Is Growing
Moscow-based “Public Opinion Foundation” reports that 32.7 mln users in Russia have had a constant Internet access by May 2008, making the number almost 30% of the Russia’s population. This puts Russia on the 4th place in the world in Internet penetration after Germany, Brazil and UK. The report also points out that 33% of Russian male population and 25% of females in the country are regular Internet users. 69% of the Internet users access the net from home, 40 % use the world wide web from their workplaces. Although less than 10% use their mobile phones to browse the web, the number of mobile Internet users is growing. As forecasted by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications a few months ago, Russia might as well score the second place in Europe by the end of 2008 with 46 mln. surfers.
Russian Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications Faces Changes
After considerable changes in the Russian government after the Presidential elections, the Ministry of IT and Communications was modified to get a new name and a new head. Igor Shegolev was appointed to manage the government body, which now bears the name of Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Communications. Although the Russian IT market reacted negatively to the extraction of the “IT” part from the Ministry’s name, the good news are new deputies to Mr. Shegolev, who possess considerable experience and vast knowledge of telecom and IT industries in Russia. Among them is Alexey Soldatov, who is considered to be one of the pioneers of Internet development in Russia back in 90s. Until his appointment to the Ministry Mr. Soldatov held the position of R&D Director at Kurchatov R&D Institute in Moscow. The Russian IT market players expect the new team of the Ministry to continue the dialogue with the business community.
Russia's Cellular Phones Penetration Rate Approaches 120%
The Russian cellular market has still shown incredible growth results as the rolling annual growth rate increased from 14 per cent for the year to 31st December 2007 to almost 16 per cent for the year to 31st March 2008, as reported by FierceMobileContent.com. Net additions of subscribers for the year were 23 million, the highest total since 2006. In April the total size of the Russian cellular market was estimated 167.7 million, giving the country a penetration rate of 118 per cent, up from 115 per cent at the end of 2007. The bulk of Russian cellular customers are accounted for by three operators, MTS, Vimpelcom and MegaFon, who shares 83 per cent of the market. Source: http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com
St.Petersburg Software Development Summit Brings Together Russian Technology Leaders
Software Development Summit, the annual flagship event of Russoft IT Services association, held in St.Petersburg on the first days of June, brought new industry figures to the light. Russoft presented the highlights of the yearly survey of the software outsourcing industry in Russia, stating that the outsourcing market from Russia grew to surpass 2.2 bln. USD with 45% year-on-year growth rate. Both the leading Russian IT outsourcing companies and software development start-ups came to the Summit to discuss best practices in technology development and outsourcing market strategy. Venture investors had a chance to meet with the potential targets, the analyst could found the fresh data from the Russian IT market. The full version of Russoft report on the software outsourcing from Russia will be available free of charge in September, 2008.
New High-Tech Venture Launched in St.Petersburg
A new technology joint venture was planted in St.Petersburg last week. Foxconn Technology Group teamed up with Hewlett-Packard to build the computer factory, which will be producing personal computers under HP brand. Foxconn Technology is the provider of joint-design, joint-development, manufacturing, assembly and after-sales services to global Computer, Communication and Consumer-electronics leaders. The spiraling demand for high-tech products has been a trend in the Russian ICT market for the last few years and two technology manufacturers are eager to capitalize on this demand. “This place will become a huge techno-park, producing high-tech electronics and computers to satisfy growing industrial, scientific, and educational needs throughout Russia…” Valentina Matviyenko, St. Petersburg Governor The venture to build a $50 million technology plant on the outskirts of St. Petersburg is supported by the government of St.Petersburg. The city authorities which has proved its interest towards making information technology an inherent part of the city life. Last year their efforts brought two MNCs' technology centers to St.Petersburg - Hewlett-Packard Labs and EMC.
Study Finds Russia's Software Rights Violation Rate Fell Significantly
Software right violation in Russia reduced greatly, says the new report of Business Software Alliance, the global organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world. BSA presented its annual report on the levels of software piracy in the world. The research found that Russia led the way with a one-year drop of seven points to 73%, and a five-year drop of 14 points. Russia’s piracy rate is decreasing at a fast pace as a result of legalization programs, government engagement and enforcement, user education, and an improved economy. Of the 108 countries included in the study, PC software piracy dropped in sixty-seven countries and rose in only eight. Among nations studied, Russia’s piracy rate dropped a remarkable seven percentage points to 73% from 2006 to 2007. This reduction is the result of legalization programs by IT vendors, enforcement and education by the Russian government, and, an overall improvement in the country’s economy that helped drive a 22% surge in personal disposable income in 2007. “Russia had a phenomenal year, with the piracy rate dropping seven points in 2007. Ongoing legalization programs on the part of vendors and the government had an impact and also lowered piracy in the installed base. In addition, Russian police authorities increased the criminal enforcement against resellers and commercial users of illegal software while some of the distribution networks that sold pirated software have switched to legitimate software distribution. Rapid economic growth and the rise in disposable income are prompting consumers to re-evaluate the trade off between the risk of using pirated software and the cost of legitimate software. Were it not for an increase in software deployments to the installed base of older PCs compared to last year, the Russia rate might have been even lower. The legitimate PC software market grew more than 100% in 2007.” From “Global Piracy Study 2007” by Business Software Alliance
Russian Programming Students Win Another ACM Contest
St.Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics emerged as the home of the top computer geniuses in the “Battle of the Brains,” also known as the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Collegiate Programming Contest. From 6,700 teams representing 1,821 universities in 83 countries competing at 213 sites from September to December 2007 worldwide, one hundred teams managed to advance to the World Finals. Students from the world's finest universities, offering the best education in the computing sciences and engineering competed for the awards, prizes, scholarships as well as the prestigious title of the World Champion. In the contest, each team is given 11 computer programming problems, and only five hours in which to write software to solve them. Students from St. Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics solved eight of the 11 problems and became the World Champion of 2008 ACM Competition. The top 10 institutions of ACM Winners this year included Russian universities from Izhevsk, Moscow, Petrozavodsk and St.Petersburg (Izhevsk State Technical University, Moscow State University, Petrozavodsk State University, St. Petersburg State University), thus proving once again that Russia still scores the highest in the art of software programming. Reksoft is proud to sponsor the Russian team and warmly congratulates the winners!
Standard & Poor’s Upgrades Russia’s Rating
In March the international rating agency Standard & Poor's revised Russia's rating outlook to Positive (A-) due to the continuous growth. The upgrade reflects the agency's expectations of the future progress of Russia, forecasted for the budget and external reserves of the country, which have recently revealed rapid growth. Russia's GDP grew by 8,1% in 2007 according to the estimates from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. Last year has also seen the surge in investments which soared by 21% in comparison to 2006. The increase in capital flows and the growing purchasing power are among other distinctive trends in the Russian economy.
Russian IT Market Growth Places Russia on Top in London Business School ICT Rating
Thanks to the growing penetration of information technologies in the country, Russia scores highest in the Connectivity Scorecard 2008, developed by London Business School and LEGG consulting firm. The Connectivity Scorecard is a pioneering global information and communications technology index that measures the extent to which governments, businesses and consumers make use of connectivity technologies to enhance social and economic prosperity. Unlike other research available, the Connectivity Scorecard measures usage and skills such as literacy, the use of enterprise software and the accessibility of women to ICT. It also articulates the benefits of connectivity explicitly in terms of economic and social contributions taking into account varying needs in different countries. Russia placed first among the nine nations that are classified in the study as resource or efficiency driven economies. The country's high literacy rate, along with solid scores on several measures of usage and infrastructure, especially mobile usage, resulted in a rating of 6.11. …Russia scores well in literacy, gender equality in Internet access, and also in usage of technologies such as mobile by business users. The Scorecard captures the fact that Russia has a relatively strong human capital endowment that may serve it well in making the transition to being an Innovation driven economy. From "Report: The Connectivity Scorecard" by Professor Leonard Waverman, London Business School Kalyan Dasgupta, LECG, Justin Tonkin, LECG Russia's IT market has enjoyed the annual growth rate of about 20% for the past few years and the Ministry of IT and Communications estimated the market volume to reach 17 bln USD in 2007.
IT and Engineering Contest Brings Together Russia’s Top Talent
The Baltic Engineering Contest held in St.Petersburg aims at identifying the best young engineering minds of Russia and helps them get necessary support for further development. The contest organized by the Math department of St.Petersburg State University offers high school students from all over Russia an opportunity to present their projects in Computer Science, Math, Physics and other engineering disciplines for review. The best projects receive awards from international organizations such as American Meteorogical Society, ASM Materials Education Foundations, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Associations, Intel Excellence in Computer Science, Yale Science and Engineering Association as well as from St.Petersburg divisions of technology giants Intel, Microsoft, Motorola. Executives from Reksoft Technology Lab also joined the expert committee, which evaluated the projects. Reksoft has been investing into development of next generation IT power of St.Petersburg. Developing practical IT skills among students for years, Reksoft has been striving to contribute to the education of technology talent of tomorrow. Running dedicated programs from the year 2001, Reksoft has built a good relationship with the city’s university communities. The close attention towards the contest both from the St.Petersburg IT business community and the city’s Administration demonstrates an importance of St.Petersburg development as a major high-tech hub of Russia.
|
