Digital ecosystems in Russia

Digital economy of Russia

• Digital economy of Russia

2023

Subscription Services Market Growth by 80%

The subscription services market in Russia in 2023 soared by 80% compared to 2022. This is stated in a joint study of Gazprom Bonus and Frank RG, as a result of which they were published in May 2024.

The market volume for 2023 is not given, but the report predicts that in 2024 the expenses of Russians on subscription services will reach 136 billion rubles, an average increase of 10-14%.

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It also follows from the report that by the end of 2023, 50% of economically active Russians used at least one ecosystem subscription. The total number of existing subscriptions was estimated at 57.5 million, which is 1.5 times more than in 2022.

It is noted that the owners of digital ecosystems (Sber, Yandex, VK, MTS, Tinkoff) for 2022-2023. significantly updated the composition of ecosystems: in general, they closed 37 services and opened 67 new ones. First of all, companies strengthened the directions of media and entertainment, which allows you to involve users, and then offer him other products of the ecosystem.

Ekaterina Vigovskaya, Senior Manager of Axenix Marketing Services and Customer Experience, in a conversation with Kommersant, noted that the development of the subscription services market in the Russian Federation is constrained by a large selection of products.

It forces the consumer to optimize costs and choose only the most useful subscriptions, refusing others, she said.

According to one of the sources of the publication, against the background of a large number of subscriptions, they will become less. In particular, the closure of projects of telecom operators can be expected, the source said.

As noted in Gazprom Bonus, cases of exclusion from partner subscriptions that were not quite popular in the total consumption of users have become more frequent. This happens even though most of them have unique offers, the experts added.^[1]

Named the largest digital ecosystems in Russia

In mid-January 2024, the analytical company Spektr presented the results of a study of the Russian digital ecosystem market. It follows from it that Yandex"" leads in the number of users of ecosystems. Next come the projects VK and. MTS

According to Spektr, the largest Russian digital ecosystems (Sber, Yandex, VK, MTS, Tinkoff) for 2022-2023. closed 37% of their services (15% of the total) and opened 67 new ones. VK closed the most ecosystem services in two years - 15. At the same time, the company is leading in the opening of new ones - 20. In relative terms, the largest growth in ecosystem filling is recorded in MTS. The figure in 2023 increased by 43% compared to the beginning of 2022. The total number of services decreased only at Sberbank - by 2%.

MTS Premium and Yandex Plus recognized ecosystems with the most actively growing subscriptions, the number of subscribers to services in 2022-2023 almost doubled. The study also notes that MTS and VK are actively developing vertically integrated structures - from content production to concert venues.

According to experts interviewed by Kommersant, the owners of digital ecosystems have moved away from the desire to strengthen their presence in the maximum number of verticals, and instead focus on improving outdated projects. Thus, the success of ecosystems becomes dependent on their ability to effectively adapt to new challenges and technologies, experts say.

According to the head of the Content Review agency, Sergei Polovnikov, "at the moment" it is easier and more efficient for ecosystem operators to invest in specific "everyday use services." Moreover, first of all, these are content services, and the development, for example, of e-commerce requires serious spending on infrastructure and logistics, the expert added in a conversation with the publication.^[2]

2022

The volume of the ecosystem subscription market in Russia is estimated at 58.1 billion rubles

The volume of the Russian digital ecosystem market in 2022 reached 58.1 billion rubles, an increase of 24% compared to 2021. The audience of these services exceeded 42 million users, which is 36% more than a year ago. Such data in the company "Innoseti" led at the end of December 2023.

Experts attribute the growth in the number of ecosystem subscribers to an increase in the Internet audience, which actively absorbs streaming content: films, music, TV shows, video games, etc. As a result, players appear on the market who offer paid package subscriptions for several services at the same time, analysts say.

The volume of the Russian digital ecosystem market in 2022 reached 58.1 billion rubles

How good or bad it is is a difficult question. If we consider, for example, from the point of view of the state, there are many ecosystems, and they do not compete with each other and do not become artificial monopolies, then everything is in order, "says Artem Efimov, general director of Innosteti. - For example, now in Russia there is Yandex.Search as a search engine, MTS as an ecosystem in the field of mobile communications and many other services, there are their own social networks VK and Odnoklassniki. These are all attributes of a common digital ecosystem for an ordinary user.

MTS, Sberbank, Tinkoff, VK, Avito and Yandex have digital ecosystems. At the same time, by the end of 2023, there are no ecosystems on the market that could offer us a finished product at the required level, which could become a driver for the further development of such projects, Efimov believes.

According to Mikhail Vereshchagin, director of the Higher School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at BFU. I. Kant, 15% of business models built on ecosystems achieve success. At the same time, one of the main shortcomings of ecosystems is the company's complete dependence on ecosystem architecture, since in case of failure it is almost impossible to change it to another, the expert noted.^[3]

The Russian market for ecosystem subscriptions to services grew by 24%. Yandex, MTS and Sber are in the lead

The Russian market for ecosystem subscriptions to digital services in 2022 grew by 24% compared to 2021 and reached 58.1 billion rubles. This assessment was announced in June 2023 by analysts at J'son & Partners Consulting.

In their terminology, an ecosystem is a collection of services, including platform solutions, one group of companies or company and partners, allowing users to receive a wide range of products and services as part of a single seamless integrated process. The ecosystem can include indoor and outdoor platforms. The range of services offered by the ecosystem meets most of the daily needs of the client or is built around one or more of his basic needs.

The Russian market for ecosystem subscriptions to digital services in 2022 grew by 24%

Yandex became the largest digital ecosystem in 2022 with a market share of 38%, as indicated in the report of J'son & Partners Consulting. In second place is MTS (21%), in third place is Sber (18%). The company occupied similar positions in 2021, but Yandex retained its market share, for MTS it decreased by 3 pp, for Sberbank it increased by 1 pp.

The total number of ecosystem subscribers in 2022 increased by 36% - to 42.45 million. According to a survey conducted by J'son & Partners Consulting in March 2023, most often, ecosystem subscribers use music services - 46.8%, online cinemas - 46.3% and make online purchases - 38%.

Experts attribute the growth of ecosystem subscriptions to an increase in the number of Internet users, the development of the streaming content industry (music, films, TV series, video games, etc.), as well as an increase in the number of services and the emergence of new players in the market offering package subscriptions for several services at the same time, which is more beneficial for users.

Large companies confirm an increase in the number of users. Thus, Yandex.Plus reported an increase in the base in the first quarter of 2023 by 77% compared to the same period in 2022 to 22.1 million people. Moreover, there was an increase in the average income of the subscriber, which is due to the addition of additional options. MTS, meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2023, the number of ecosystem clients increased year-on-year by 26.7% to 13.9 million. According to a company representative, this is due to the growing popularity of such MTS products as the online cinema Kion, the book service "Strings," etc.

The total number of ecosystem subscribers in 2022 increased by 36% - to 42.45 million

At the same time, analysts note that the market in rubles is growing disproportionately to the growth of the base. This is due to the fact that among the subscribers are taken into account, including industrial and joint-stock users (about 10-20% of the total base), which almost do not bring revenue.

According to the forecast of J'son & Partners Consulting analysts, by 2027 the ecosystem subscription market will amount to 101.5 billion rubles, an increase of 1.7 times. As explained in the research company, the growth in the total number of subscriptions will occur mainly due to an increase in the average number of subscriptions per user (and not coverage in general). In 2021, this figure was 1.1, and in 2023 it increased to 1.5.

Anna Pashkevich, General Director of the Partnership Network company (Fire subscription operator, whose strategic partner is Gazprombank), in a conversation with Vedomosti, called J'son & Partners Consulting's forecast "realistic." Among the factors that will contribute to the growth of the ecosystem subscription market, as she noted, are the integration of own games into ecosystem services, collaborations between ecosystems and their assets, the development of the consumption habit of services, the desire to save or receive are beneficial from the use of services.^[4]

2021: Creating a digital ecosystem regulatory framework

In early April 2021, it became known about the concept of regulating digital ecosystems developed by the Government of the Russian Federation. The Ministry of Digital Development sent this document to IT associations to prepare comments.

According to Kommersant, citing a government project, the concept is being prepared on behalf of President Vladimir Putin on January 27, 2021. It proposes to introduce into legislation the definitions of "ecosystem" and "digital platform." The document also contains general provisions on the need to stimulate the phased transformation of digital services towards digital platforms and the ecosystem market.

The Russian government has developed a concept for regulating digital ecosystems

The project describes such areas of regulation as state investments in the development of digital platforms, coordination of strategies for large digital platforms, principles of taxation of ecosystems, as well as the procedure for their mergers and acquisitions.

According to the newspaper, the document provides for the phased implementation of the project. At the first stage, until 2022, appropriate regulation will be developed within the framework of the federal project "Regulatory Regulation of the Digital Environment" (part of the national program "Digital Economy"), which is supervised by the Ministry of Economy. The second phase will run until 2030 and will be to "massively build digital platforms and integrate them into the economy."

The government believes that the concept of regulating digital ecosystems will increase their competitiveness abroad, including through state support.

If state support measures are implemented to stimulate Russian ecosystems, they can become an export product for those countries where their own analogues have not yet been created, says Timofey Khoroshev, head of PwC's technology consulting practice in Russia. At the same time, there is now a tendency to close certain markets for platforms from other countries, this is happening in the USA, China and the European Union, said Andrei Sholokhov, deputy general director of Softline for work with national projects.^[5]

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