Ad sites in Russia

Internet trading (Russian market)

Main article: Internet trading (Russian market)

2022

Putin signed a decree banning foreigners from owning Russian ad services

Foreign citizens, as well as citizens of the Russian Federation who have a passport of another country, will not be able to be owners of Internet ad services in the Russian Federation from 2023. The corresponding decree at the end of December 2022 was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

We are talking about services with a daily audience of over 100 thousand users. The law will come into force on March 1, 2023. In accordance with it, changes are made to the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection." Foreign legal entities and Russian companies with a predominance of foreign capital will also no longer be able to own such services.

Vladimir Putin

At the same time, the owner of the service can also be an organization under the control of the Russian Federation, a constituent entity of the Russian Federation or a Russian citizen. Pod Kontrolem is understood to own more than 50% of the voting shares that make up the authorized capital of this legal entity.

Also, according to the law, the Internet service cannot be used to commit criminal offenses, promote terrorism and extremism, and disclose state secrets.

The service must install an audience counter and ensure integration and interaction with Public services.

The register of classifies will have to be maintained by Roskomnadzor, for which the department will monitor and request the information necessary for this from the owners.

As explained earlier by the State Duma deputy from United Russia, Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications Anton Gorelkin (author of the bill on the regulation of sites with announcements), over the past decade, online ad services have turned into "huge repositories" of various data about citizens.

Many of them are now owned by foreigners, so we are seriously afraid for the safety of this information and cannot predict what will happen if it leaks, Gorelkin said in June 2022. - Another problem is scammers. The volume of fraudulent actions that are carried out using classifieds is estimated at hundreds of millions of rubles. "

The Ministry of Digital Industry supports the regulation of electronic bulletin boards

The Ministry of Digital Science of the Russian Federation on August 11, 2022 announced its support for the regulation of electronic bulletin boards.

Regulation of electronic bulletin boards is properly reflected in draft law No. 141597-8 of deputy Anton Gorelkin. The bill proposes to supplement the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection."

The Ministry of Digital Industry generally supports this bill and highlights the following points in it:

The bill is not limited to the concept of "advertising" and covers the entire classification market: the issues of placing ads (goods, services, work, real estate, etc.) are generally regulated, and not only ads of individuals about goods and services.

In terms of requirements for owners of the classification, the bill does not limit the possibility of functioning of the classification market, especially when it comes to Russian companies. No single resources and operators are introduced that negatively affect competition. Only a requirement is introduced on the need for Russian participation in the existing classifications.

The bill introduces additional regulation of the functioning of classifications to protect the rights of users (obligations to control posted information, etc.). This is not difficult for the classification, but it protects users. The integration of classifications with e-government services will ensure reliable identification of users who post ads and participate in transactions, and will reduce the risks of fraud.

Russia is going to regulate the work of ad placement services

A draft law regulating the operation of ad placement services has been submitted to the State Duma. Including ownership of them can prohibit foreign citizens and companies. This became known on June 11, 2022.

The bill provides for amendments to the law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection." They are going to regulate the work of ad placement services in Russia, the attendance of which is more than 10 million people during the month.

According to the text of the document, in particular, the share of foreign participation in ad sites will be limited. It will be able to be no more than 20 percent.

Also, if the bill is adopted, the obligations of the owners of such sites will be established. In particular, they will be obliged to prevent the use of the resource in violation of the laws of Russia. Owners of ad sites will have to comply with the prohibitions and restrictions of the current laws, comply with the rights and interests of Russians. Even violations of the norms on elections and referendums are going to be recorded. Judging by the text of the document, Roskomnadzor will be called upon to ensure that regulations are not violated.

Individual users may be required to publish real names and initials. Legal entities will have to post company data. All categories will require an email address. It is noted that this will be done to "send legally significant messages."^[1].

2020: Growth of the real estate search services market by 3.3%, to 8.9 billion rubles

The market volume of sites with advertisements for the sale and rental of apartments in Russia at the end of 2020 amounted to 8.9 billion rubles, an increase of 3.3% compared to 2019. This is stated in the RBC Market Research analytics published in June 2021, dedicated to the market of sites with advertisements in the housing sector.

Revenues of services increased, including due to measures of state support for the construction industry, adopted against the backdrop of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. In addition, the increase in site traffic in general affected, as people began to spend more time at home.

In 2020, the market volume of sites with advertisements for the sale and rental of apartments in the Russian Federation reached 8.9 billion rubles

According to analysts, the share of Avito and its portal Domofond.ru in 2020 amounted to 33.4% against 20.6% of the following "Cian.ru." Yandex.Real Estate is in third place (13.1%), Yula is in fourth place (6.5%).

According to the study, due to the fact that the main source of income for classification sites in Russia is the receipt of funds from paid services when placing advertisements, and not from making purchase and sale transactions, the growth rate is not so high. In addition, large players show significant growth against the background of favorable conditions in the real estate market, taking away the share of small companies that continue to lose ground. This leads not so much to growth as to the redistribution of the online classification of real estate in Russia.

Researchers note that the segment of the primary real estate market in the structure of such sites and portals accounts for 17.8%, or 1.6 billion rubles, secondary real estate - 71.4%, or 6.3 billion rubles and rent - 10.8%, or 950 million rubles at the end of 2020.

According to a sociological study by RBC, the most common resource for finding an apartment for purchase is ad sites, which during 2020 were visited by about 62% of surveyed apartment buyers from Russia.^[2]

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