RB.ru

Main article about the company: Rusbase

Performance indicators

2023: Revenue growth to 90 million rubles with a loss of 5.7 million

Interfax, citing Rbtochkar reports, notes that the company received a loss of 5.7 million rubles in 2023. In 2022, it was at the level of 4.2 million rubles. The company's revenue for 2023 increased to 90.4 million rubles. from 57.3 million rubles. in 2022

History

2024: Alfa-Bank became the owner of 73% of the legal entity of the publication RB.ru

In September 2024, Alfa-Bank acquired 73% of Rbtochkar LLC, a legal entity of a business publication RB.ru. The deal will allow the bank to develop new educational projects and media platforms for entrepreneurs, as well as bring to a new level existing initiatives aimed at supporting small and medium-sized businesses in Russia, according to a press release.

As clarifies Interfax"," Alfa-Bank received the bulk of the package, which belonged to Kurs LLC from the end of 2023, which as a result reduced its share from 85% to 12%. The beneficiary of the Course is Marat Ismagulov, who is also HR Director of Alfa-Bank. Another 15% in Rbtochkaru LLC is owned by Lyudmila Svetlova.

It follows from the press release that Alfa-Bank's partnership with the publication began in February 2024 with the launch of the free educational platform "Course," intended for entrepreneurs. This platform helps business owners find answers to important questions - from organizing accounting to finding funding sources. One of the key achievements of the project was the creation of the business cartoon "IPashniki," which is broadcast on YouTube and VK Video. In the future, it is planned to expand content formats and develop new training courses.

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Фото: TAdviser

According to Alfa-Bank's small and micro-business director Denis Osina bank it has long been actively supporting the development of entrepreneurship in Russia. As part of its initiatives, Alfa-Bank holds large-scale events, such as Alfa Confa, and launched the Considerable Business Fund, which helps entrepreneurs advertise their projects.

RB.RU CEO Elsa Egorova emphasized that the launch of the Kurs platform has become an important initiative aimed at similar audiences. The partnership with Alfa-Bank confirms the success of this idea and opens up new opportunities for further development. In the near future, it is planned not only to expand the platform, but also to launch additional services that will be useful for both entrepreneurs and investors, she said.^[1]

2016

Rusbase buys out RB.ru

After the announcement of the news about the closure of the RB.ru, Maria Podlesnova (CEO of Rusbase) and Natalya Moiseenkova (CEO of RB.ru) began negotiations on the acquisition of the asset by Rusbase. An important desire of both sides was to preserve the results of 10 years of team work RB.ru.

The transaction was closed on May 24, 2016. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, Rusbase becomes the owner of the entire publication of the RB.ru, including the site itself and its user base, the domain name of the rb.ru and a number of trademarks.

The monthly audience of the RB.ru was 1-1.5 million unique users per month. After the closure of the project, the site continues to be visited by an average of 0.6 million unique users per month (which is slightly less than the monthly audience Rusbase.com at this time).

The publication RB.ru positioned itself as "Russian Business Insider" and wrote about both business and the lifestyle of company owners and employees.

Natalya Moiseenkova, ex-publisher of RB.ru, now - CEO Villacarte.com:

I understood, as a supervisor, that the RB.ru should be closed, being a non-core asset for Viadeo. But even then, at all costs, I decided to do everything in my power to save the life of a project with almost 10 years of history. I remember all the zero and the first days of the resource, all our victories and mistakes, I definitely had a "burden of parental responsibility." About 10 companies communicated with me about the acquisition of this asset, but it was when the message came to Facebook from Masha, I felt - this is the same Union. I think her energy and creativity, the strength of the entire Rusbase team will create a strongest and influential project on the market, in which there will be features RB.ru.

It was announced that all previous materials of the RB.ru and the entire user network will be saved on the current domain, while all content and services will Rusbase.com move to a new address. A single media about business and technologies will develop under the Rusbase brand, which increases its audience by 2 times.

Such a media asset will be managed by Maria Podlesnova (CEO) and Anastasia Atkina (COO), who previously announced her move to Rusbase from Computerra. Elina Kirillova remains the editor-in-chief of Rusbase on the rb.ru domain.

Maria Podlesnova, CEO, Rusbase:

I don't know what words are spoken in those moments. For a month now I have been torn apart by emotions and joy. And believe me, it was very difficult for me to be silent and not say anything to anyone:) I am sincerely grateful to Natasha for choosing us and agreeing to close the deal with us. Many thanks to our Black Ocean investors, who supported me and within 24 hours gave "good." I am proud that we made our own money with which we closed the deal, and did not attract additional funding. I feel like a great media manager and I know that we are building the coolest publication about business and technology in our country. We won't let you down!

Viadeo decides to close the site

In early 2016, the parent company RB.ru the French Viadeo (which previously bought out Sanoma Independent Media's stake) made a number of strategic decisions that influenced the Russian branch. Viadeo's main business is a professional social network. The Russian office was an exception, since it also had a media resource. The entire market for professional social networks at this time is not going through the easiest times (the fall in the capitalization of LinkedIn, the same is with Viadeo). At the beginning of 2016, the board of directors fired CEO and founder of the company Dan Serfati, and then, as part of a new course - not on expansion, but on a sharp reduction - it was decided to focus on the company's operations only in France and close all local offices - in China, Africa... and in Russia. The decision on Russia was made last. In this regard, since April 2016, the update was RB.ru stopped.

The publisher of the RB.RU portal at the time of closing is Natalya Moiseenkova.

2012: Weak audience performance

2011

Joint project with Viadeo

In December 2011, it became known that Viadeo was creating a joint project with the Finnish Sanoma Independent Media (co-owner of Business News Media, which publishes the Vedomosti newspaper). We are talking about a Russian-language network of professional contacts.

The project will bring together the professional community formed around the business portal rb.ru owned and SIM resources. Viadeo The Cyrillic shell for the network will be available in early 2012.

Viadeo is counting on the active growth of the Russian market - according to the chairman of the board of directors of SIM Elena Myasnikova, "in the next few years, Russia will become the largest media market in Europe." Viadeo's goal at the end of 2012 is 2 million participants in Russia, writes The Wall Street Journal^[2].

Reorganization. Plan for transformation into a social network

In January 2011, it became known that Independent Media Sanoma Magazines was preparing to reorganize the^[3] business website^[3]. Management has already laid off most of the editorial staff. As expected, in the future the portal will turn into a social network, and RB.RU content will be filled not by professional journalists, but by amateur users. The Independent Media partner in the creation of the social network will be a foreign company. This was reported to GZT.RU by several employees of the company.

According to them, only three people will remain in the company from writing journalists. The rest of the staff will leave the editorial office. They have already signed documents on the termination of the employment contract by agreement of the parties with the payment of three salaries.

2007: Launch of the edition

The RB.ru project was launched in 2007. Then its name fully sounded like "RB.ru Business Network."

Notes