i-Free (I-Frees)

The company takes part in the development of the mobile services market.

Areas of activity

i-Free is a Russian company, since 2001 it has been operating in the CIS market, since 2006 - in the international market. He specializes in the implementation of projects in the field of mobile and NFC technologies, electronic finance, digital distribution of content, electronic payment systems and micropayments, the development of applications for smartphones and new network devices, as well as the promotion of digital products in the B2C market and the implementation of B2B projects in the field of mobile marketing.

i-Free founded an industry forum in the CIS and Eastern Europe - Mobile VAS Conference, dedicated to topical issues of the industry; held the annual summer VAS Forum for telecommunications companies, supported numerous developer conferences and seminars, as well as the Russian Mobile VAS Awards, awarded for the brightest innovative projects.

With the active participation of i-Free, two leading industry associations were created: the Russian Association of Mobile Services and Content Providers (CSPA) and the Russian Association of Electronic Money, organized in cooperation with Yandex.Money, WebMoney and Qiwi.

The company is represented in international markets: i-Free offices are located in Kyiv (Ukraine), Minsk (Belarus), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Mumbai (India), Beijing (China), San Paolo (Brazil). i-Free products and services are available today in more than 100 countries.

The headquarters of i-Free is located in St. Petersburg, the representative office is in Moscow. The company employs more than 750 people (2013).

i-Free cooperates with leading mobile operators of Russia and the CIS countries, global mobile equipment vendors, banks, multinational brands and trademarks, major media holdings, publishing houses and Internet resources.

Performance indicators

2014

On March 11, 2015, i-Free announced the results of 2014: the total sales of the group of 22 companies and a project in different segments of the IT industry amounted to $130 million, and net-revenue - $92 million.

In 2014, amendments to the Law "On Communications" came into force. They changed the model of providing mobile additional services and content to the population, which is why the market volume decreased by more than 60%. As a result, the total sales of companies belonging to the i-Free group decreased by 48% compared to 2013 to $130 million, and net-revenue decreased by 29% to $92 million, respectively.

Minimizing losses in the i-Free group, they undertook reforms: they closed several areas that had lost relevance, carried out an internal restructuring of the business, optimized business processes and teams, as a result of which the staff of i-Free employees decreased by 40% and as of March 12, 2015 is about 380 people.

Losses incurred by the group's companies between May and October 2014 resulted in operating debt to several partners. According to the company's management, as of March 12, 2015, the bulk of the debt was restructured, the group's companies began to repay it.

"Now we are confident in the future, although we understand that it will take us about a year to settle with the main creditors and bring the indicator of our own funds to the required level in the group as a whole," said Vasily Kuntsevich, director of the i-Free management company.

In April 2014, i-Free identified key strategic projects with the greatest market prospects. At the same time, the process of reforming the entire i-Free business and transforming the company and its corporate fund into an investment group began.

In March 2015, the process continues and the company summarizes the results of individual businesses and projects. As of March 12, 2015:

• Stabilized financial indicators in three traditional operational areas: B2B, cooperation with leading manufacturers of mobile devices, micropayments.
• There was an increase in the total revenue of the group's companies operating in the mobile gaming industry and focused mainly on exports. Today, this area accounts for 17% of the group's total revenue and its further growth is expected.
• Venture fund i-Free Ventures left the Quppi project, the new investor of which was Finstar. At the moment, the fund is discussing several new transactions with strategic and investment partners, and almost all startups it previously financed have broken even.
• Projects in the field of media are developing: cooperation with Channel One continues in the projects "Voice," "Voice-Children," "Who wants to become a millionaire?," "Field of Miracles." In addition, within the framework of the direction, work has begun on a number of new TV projects, including for SmartTV.
• In September 2014, the i-Free business in China began to grow again: in January 2015, i-Free China's monthly revenue growth was 38%.
• CardsMobile has launched To Europe contactless NFC payments into the project using smartphones on the platform, with Android transport companies. In the spring of 2015, travel on the ground and underground in, transport To Moscow metro St. Petersburg Yekaterinburg in and can be paid for using the Wallet application.

2011

The company's sales in 2011 exceeded $160 million.

History

2014

Mobile Trends Forum cancellation

At the end of August 2014, i-Free announced the cancellation of the Mobile Trends Forum, which was supposed to be held in November, for financial reasons:

The conference has always attracted a large number of sponsors, but this year the situation has changed. After the adoption of amendments to the Law "On Communications," which entered into force on May 1, 2014, the market for additional mobile services and mobile content decreased by more than 50%. Such a catastrophic decline had an extremely negative impact on the activities of many companies that had previously sponsored the conference.

current conditions, the conference partners cannot guarantee the allocation of funds for sponsorship of the forum. Therefore, i-Free decided not to hold the Russian Mobile Awards (RMA) conference and competition this year.

Amendments to the Law "On Communications," which entered into force on May 1, 2014, as stated in the i-Free statement, removed SMS fraud from the legal field by subscribing subscribers of mobile telecom operators to authorized services (usually the so-called "content") without the explicit consent of the subscribers themselves.

content-review.com analyst Sergei Polovnikov believes that the cancellation of the conference directly reflects the deterioration of the financial state of i-Free:

The fall VAS Conference forum has been canceled. The organizers complain that "the conference partners cannot guarantee the allocation of funds for sponsorship of the forum." It is not a secret polishinel that the main sponsor of this conference was i-Free.

Trial with Mail.ru

In October 2014, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg accepted for production a claim from Мэйл.ру Games LLC against Bifri LLC (owned by i-Free) to recover a debt of 4,553,332 rubles and a penalty of 290,116 rubles. A preliminary court hearing date has been set for November 12, 2014.

Мэйл.ру Games LLC also asked the court to take interim measures in the form of seizure of the defendant's funds:

support of the stated claim, the plaintiff referred to the duration of the defendant's failure to fulfill its payment obligations, the defendant's lack of funds, the presence of other creditors, in connection with which the plaintiff believes that under such circumstances it may be difficult or impossible to execute the judicial act in this case^[1].

In interim measures, the court refused:

The Arbitration Court considers that the applicant's arguments are of an alleged nature, the applicant does not provide evidence of the existence of grounds for taking interim measures [..] There is no information that the defendant intends to hide his property, makes preparations for this.

Later, Vladimir Gabrielyan, Vice President and CTO of Mail.Ru Group, said:

We have now agreed to settle the claims.

Notes