VK (formerly Mail.ru Group)

VK - until 2021 - Mail.Ru Group, until September 2010 - Digital Sky Technologies, DST. Russian investment company operating in the Internet services market.

Ecosystem of Mail.ru Group projects

Internet

As of January 2020, the company's assets include:

• Mail.ru and Cloud Mail.Ru

• Delivery Club food tech project,
• announcement service, Spinning top
• Pandao International Marketplace

• Odnoklassniki.ru
• Vk.com
• My мир@Mail.ru

• TamTam
• ICQ
• Mail.Ru Agent

• United Media Agency
• 33 Elephants - digital estate agency

B2B Business

• VK Tech

• Biz.mail.ru Clouds of Mail.ru for Business
• Predictive Analytic Solutions. Mail.ru Group

VK Board of Directors

Main article: VK Board of Directors

Performance indicators

Main article: Financial performance of Mail.ru Group

2023

VK grew to 15 thousand people, increasing the number of employees by 32% over the year

From January to December 2023, the number of VK employees increased by 32%, to 15 thousand people, according to the company's annual report. The share of IT specialists and product developers increased to 63%.

VK told TAdviser that in many ways the company achieves these results thanks to HR's comprehensive work on recruiting and retaining employees.

We improve recruitment approaches: we optimize and automate processes, increase recruitment performance, apply new recruitment tools, develop internal and external recommendation programs, and work to reduce the percentage of refusal of ofers. We invest in the brand's appeal to job seekers and improve the employee wellbeing program. We grow our own specialists, helping young talents become professionals in their field - participants in internships, students of VK Education courses and educational projects get the opportunity to continue working in the company's staff and qualitatively close junior positions, VK explains.

VK increased the number of employees by 32%

In the reporting period, VK expanded cooperation with 30 Russian universities and implemented internship and scholarship programs for IT specialists, as indicated in its annual report. At the same time, the company works with schoolchildren. Thus, in 2023, VK covered over 3.3 million schoolchildren with its career guidance projects.

The growth in the number of employees is also associated with the acquisition of new subsidiaries during 2023, TAdviser was specified in VK. For example, VK consolidated the largest online platform for schoolchildren "Учи.ру," buying out the remaining share in the amount of 75%. According to the Federal Tax Service, the average number of Учи.ру employees in 2023 was 484 people.

And in December, VK acquired a 100% stake in the Yclients group of companies, Russia's largest online recording and business automation platform in the service sector. The average number of employees of its main company - Whitelents - in 2023 was 322 people.

It follows from the annual report that from 2019 to 2023 the share of female employees in VK has grown from 36% to 45%: "VK is building a comfortable, inclusive and fair work environment, takes care of diversity in the team, including the increase in the share of women in the company and in the IT industry as a whole."

In 2023, more than 6.7 thousand vacancies were closed in VK. The high pace of hiring has been sustained amid growing competition for highly skilled professionals. In 2024, competition for personnel remains, and VK is ready to point out the candidates suitable for it on the market. In February, she published a request for proposals for services for the search and selection of top personnel and for the study of the candidate market (talent mapping), for which VK was ready to pay up to 240 million rubles ^[1] The desired market research involved candidate identification, experience analysis, compensation level analysis, recommendation collection, contact and interviewing of potential candidates.

Revenue growth of 36%. VK Tech revenues grow fastest

In 2023, VK's revenue reached 132.8 billion rubles, an increase of about 36% compared to the previous year. At the same time, the largest growth was shown by the VK Tech division (technologies for business) - plus 67.5% on an annualized basis with a final result of 9.7 billion rubles. Such data are reflected in the financial report published on March 21, 2024.

It is noted that the main source of growth in VK indicators was revenue from online advertising, which increased by 40% in 2023, amounting to 79.7 billion rubles. Revenues from online advertising of medium and small businesses increased by 42% compared to 2022, from advertising integrations in their own content, shows of partners and bloggers - 2.5 times. Adjusted EBITDA (profit before interest, taxes and depreciation) in 2023 amounted to 495 million rubles.

In 2023, the average daily audience (DAU) of VK services increased by 13% compared to 2022 and reached approximately 76 million users. At the same time, the length of time spent on the company's resources on an annualized basis rose by 6%: the figure averaged 3.4 billion minutes per day.

In the VK Tech segment, the main growth drivers were cloud platform services VK Cloud (revenue growth of 75.4% compared to 2022) and communication solutions (VK WorkSpace plus 68%). Revenue from sales of HR services in 2023 increased 3.1 times. EBITDA Segment profitability rose 7.1% yoy to 27.2% in 2023. Adjusted EBITDA reached 2.6 billion rubles, an increase of 127.2% on an annualized basis.

The revenue of the Ecosystem Services and Other Areas segment amounted to 23 billion rubles in 2023. The loss on adjusted EBITDA was recorded at 3.5 billion rubles. This segment includes the Mail.ru Mail and Mail.ru Cloud services, as well as the RuStore app store and the VK Play gaming platform.^[2]

Acquisitions, divestitures and JVs

Main item: Acquisitions, divestment and JV VK (formerly Mail.ru Group)

IT infrastructure

White Paper: VK (IT Infrastructure)

History

2024

Consideration of the possibility of holding an IPO of VK Tech at the Moscow Exchange

VK (MKPAO VK) is considering the possibility of conducting an initial public offering (IPO) of the VK Tech technological vertical (VK Technologies JSC) on the Moscow Exchange. This was announced on December 9, 2024 to the TAdviser portal by representatives of VK. According to them, such an opportunity is being considered as part of a regular assessment of VK's strategic development prospects. The decision is planned to be made taking into account market conditions. Read more here.

Cutting several hundred employees in recent weeks

In September and early October 2024, several hundred employees left VK, and in total the company intends to lay off more than 2 thousand people. The cuts affect primarily those who received low results based on the Performance Review, as well as employees of the divisions that the holding decided to close. This is stated in materials published on October 11, 2024.

According to Forbes, referring to information received from former VK employees, management does not hold any meetings regarding the situation. At the same time, the section of the corporate website with information about employees accepted or dismissed from the company has not been available since the beginning of October 2024. According to saved screenshots of this page, on September 28 of this year, 59 people stopped working at VK. On October 1, 2024, 207 people left the company, the next day - several dozen more. It is emphasized that layoffs in VK are underway, but there is no communication between the company and employees about this.

Several hundred employees have left VK in recent weeks

It feels like the management thinks like this: if we pretend that this is not the case, everything will resolve. The holding very diligently cleans out the negative from the public field and protects employees from access to such information as much as possible. Everything is sad about this, the company has a general depressed state, silence on all fronts and silence, - said the interlocutor of Forbes.

It is noted that it is difficult to assess the real scale of the reductions. According to some reports, on October 11, 2024, from 300 to 500 people were fired. In general, up to 2,500 workers may fall under the reduction. Three personnel specialists familiar with the situation in the holding speak of a decrease in the number of personnel. The reorganization may be related to VK's desire to improve its financial position.^[3]

The development of the Pushkin Card IT system has passed from Rostelecom to VK

On September 30, 2024, it became known that the VK holding began the active development of the Pushkin Card IT system, which was previously managed by Rostelecom. The company began searching for developers for the application "Public services Culture," used to design the "Pushkin Card." Read more here.

TAdviser interview with Director of Infrastructure Protection Department Ilya Safronov

Platforms are now the basis of the economy. It is the presence of even several large platforms in Russia that allows it to continue the development of the digital economy, regardless of external unfavorable factors. A key feature of platforms is the security of both their own infrastructure and a huge amount of customer data. To understand exactly how one of the largest Russian platforms is being defended - VK - TAdviser asked several questions to Ilya Safronov, director of the VK infrastructure protection department. Read more here.

Opening of IT hub in Novosibirsk

VK opened an IT hub in Novosibirsk. The company announced this on May 21, 2024.

The company's working space is located in the very center of the city - in the co-working space "Practice" at 46 Deputatskaya Street. More than 100 VK employees are already working in Novosibirsk, the company plans to open new positions for local specialists.

The opening of the hub took place as part of the VK program for the development of the IT community in regions with high scientific and technical potential. The program includes the creation of regional hubs, holding events for the exchange of experience and attracting strong IT specialists to work.

We continue to grow actively and want to get closer to the IT community in the regions. Novosibirsk is known for scientific achievements, technologies and talented specialists, so opening an office here will allow us to meet in person and exchange experience, as well as give even more opportunities for local professionals to work on large-scale products for millions of users throughout the country. Our first meetup will be dedicated to backend - there are many strong specialists in this profile in Novosibirsk, and VK has a diverse and unique backend development. We have something to share with each other, "said Elena Bogdanovich, director of brand development at VK employer.

In addition to its office in Novosibirsk, VK opened IT hubs in Kazan and Minsk in 2023. The company also has offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Sochi. In total, as of May 2024, VK has 15 thousand employees.

Participation in TAdviser IT in Industry

VK experts will share a fresh look at corporate mobility in industrial companies at the TAdviser IT in Industry conference on March 21, 2024 in Moscow. Read more here.

Participation in TAdviser IT Retail Day

The top manager of VK will share analytics of the volumes and dynamics of the Russian corporate communications market and talk about the main growth drivers at the TAdviser IT RETAIL DAY conference on March 20, 2024 in Moscow. Read more here.

VK shut down music label

At the end of February 2024, information appeared that VK closed the music label VK Beats Records, focused on working with rap artists. At the same time, all musical catalogs of artists and employees were transferred to the VK Music Records label, which develops pop musicians. Read more here.

2023

Opening an office in Belarus

The first representative office of the Russian holding VK began to work on the territory of Belarus. This was announced on December 8, 2023 by representatives of the company.

The VK office in Belarus is a 400 ^m2 space that will house 50 developers from the VKontakte, Zen and VK Tech teams. 15 jobs are reserved for co-working space, where VK employees or office guests who come from other cities can work.

"VK services are already familiar to millions of users in Belarus - and now we want to get to know the Belarusian IT community, where we see many talented developers. We invite you to the team: we have many interesting and difficult tasks, opportunities for growth and development, and now the new VK office in Minsk is a space for collaboration and creativity, "said Nadezhda Serova, VK Vice President for Personnel and Educational Projects.

By the opening of the office in Minsk, a guide for those who want to get acquainted with the city appeared in Marusya's voice assistant. If you ask Marusya where to go and what to do in Minsk, she will give advice - from historical places to an atmospheric art coffee shop.

Create two business groups

VK created two business groups, combining key products and services into them. The press service of the holding announced this on September 4, 2023. The new divisions were named "Social Platforms and Media Content" and "Ecosystem and Comprehensive Services." The updated VK structure began to include the following areas:

• Social platforms and media content;
• Ecosystem and comprehensive services;
• Technologies for Business;
• Non-alloculated.

Within the framework of the Social Platforms and Media Content business group, the services VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Zen, VK Video, VK Music, VK Clips and VK Messenger are combined. The new group was headed by Stepan Kovalchuk, VK Senior Vice President for Media Strategy.

Mail.ru mail services, the Rustore app store, VK ID, VK Pay, educational products and new businesses are merged into the Ecosystem and Comprehensive Services business group under the leadership of VK Senior Vice President for Business Development and Investment Alexander Aivazov.

Anton Frolov has been appointed Vice President for AI, Content and Advisory Services. In the new status, he will deal with artificial intelligence technologies, building a single platform for recommendations and content search for all VK products. Also, Frolov's area of ​ ​ responsibility will include the development of the data office. He will continue as CEO to head Zen.

As VK emphasized, as products develop, business groups can expand and include new assets of the holding. Products and services that were not included in the created business groups will continue to develop within their divisions. The functional areas of responsibility of VK senior vice presidents will remain the same, the holding's press service added.^[4]

Change of registration from the British Virgin Islands to Russia

VK will change registration from the British Virgin Islands to the Russian one. The company announced this on August 11, 2023, after which its securities began to rise in price.

VK Company Limited announces the adoption of decisions by shareholders and the Board of Directors of VK on the redomication - termination of the company's activities in the British Virgin Islands and its continuation in the Russian Federation as an international company of a public joint stock company in accordance with Russian law, the holding said in a statement.

It is noted that VK will continue its activities in Russia as an international company of a public joint stock company (MKPAO VK) in accordance with Russian law. She will be in a special administrative district on the island of Oktyabrsky, Kaliningrad region. The current members of the board of directors of VK Company Limited remain members of the board of directors of MKPAO VK, the company emphasized.

The shareholders also approved the decision on the delisting of GDRs and VK Eurobonds from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the initial placement on the Moscow Exchange. The London listing is expected to end on September 12, 2023. VK said in a statement that it would notify the UK Financial Conduct Authority and LSE. VK explained the decision to delist by plans for redomication, as well as "finding the majority of the company's assets in Russia." In addition, she pointed to the suspension of trading in her securities on the LSE from March 3, 2022 and the impossibility of disclosure on the London stock exchange.

VK quotes at the opening of trading on the Moscow Exchange on August 11, 2023 increased by 2.8%, to 783 rubles. By 11:32 Moscow time, growth slowed down to 1.49%, the price of one receipt amounted to 773 rubles.^[5]

Opening of IT park in Kazan

On July 6, 2023, VK Holding announced the opening of an office in Kazan, which the company called an IT hub. The space with an area of ​ ​ more than 1500 square meters. m includes open spaces, meeting rooms, lounge areas, coffee point and an open lecture hall.

The office is located in Bashir Rameev IT Park. By July 6, 2023, VK developers are already working there, including the Movika team, which develops technologies and products for creating and consuming VKontakte interactive content. In total, the Kazan hub will be able to accommodate up to 120 employees of the company from all over Russia.

According to the press service of VK, master classes and mitapes will be regularly held in the Kazan office with the participation of company speakers and invited experts - both for employees and for members of the professional community in Tatarstan: more than 3,500 residents work in the IT park alone. The first mitap will take place on the opening day: top managers of VK Tech, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Zena will perform at it. Vice President of VK for Personnel and Educational Projects Nadezhda Serova called the company's IT hub "a meeting place for people and technologies."

We are glad that Kazan became the first city where the VK IT hub appeared. Its opening will affect the IT industry of both the city and the republic. Bashir Rameev IT Park, where the company's office is located, is not only an infrastructure platform, but also an ecosystem, a center of attraction for IT specialists, digital entrepreneurs and creative communities. The conditions created here will help VK to be closer to the regions and its users, and launch many more cool formats, - said the Minister of Digitalization of Tatarstan Airat Khairullin.

In addition to the Kakhansky IT hub, VK has eight offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Sochi by early July 2023. In total, the company employs more than 11 thousand employees.

Implementation of sustainable development policies

On April 17, 2023, VK announced that it had adopted a sustainability policy for the company. The document combines the principles of VK in the field of ESG - environmental, social and corporate governance.

Having developed a sustainable development policy, we have systematized the activities that VK has been conducting since 2013. The document unites all the company's ESG initiatives, making VK's work in this direction more transparent for all audiences - from users and employees to partners and shareholders, "said Ksenia Toporkova, VK Sustainability Manager.

The policy describes in detail the approaches applied in VK in three areas included in the concept of "sustainable development" (ESG): ecology, social responsibility and corporate governance.

To minimize the negative impact on the environment, the Company implements responsible environmental management models. In particular, VK has developed and implemented its own VK HR Tek solution, which allows you to switch to personnel electronic document management and refuse to exchange paper copies. In 2022, the service became available to other companies.

The policy reflects VK's participation in the development of charity in Russia through the Dobro Mail.ru service and its own Code of Good foundation. The service and foundation help users and companies participate in charitable projects throughout Russia and make charity easier and more accessible. As of April 2023, 247 funds and more than 3,340 successfully completed aid collection projects Mail.ru on Dobra.

Another important policy element is to increase the digital availability of VK products and services.

Agreement with the Academy of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation on joint training of specialists in innovation and education

On February 17, 2023, VK and the Academy of the Ministry of Education of Russia entered into a cooperation agreement. The parties will work to create training programs and projects for teachers and education specialists, as well as promote the development of digital education in the country. Among the immediate joint plans of VK and the Academy of the Ministry of Education are the launch of courses on digital tools, work with content and the development of educational communities, as well as a series of live broadcasts for teachers. Read more here.

Investing 1 billion rubles in the development of the game engine

VK will invest 1 billion rubles in the creation of a domestic game engine (a basic means of developing video games), and its development will take three years. VK CEO Vladimir Kiriyenko announced this during a joint press conference with the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development in mid-February 2023. Read more here.

Approval by the Board of Directors of the possibility of transferring the company to Russia

In February 2023, the board of directors of VK Company Limited approved the possibility of transferring VK to Russia from the British Virgin Islands, subject to applicable legislative and regulatory requirements. Representatives of VK reported this on February 14, 2023. The decision was made against the background of US and EU sanctions adopted after the start of a special operation in Ukraine.

As explained in the company, in the current situation, when the overwhelming majority of assets are based and bring revenue in Russia, and the number of Russian holders of securities has increased, redomication (re-registration of the company's legal entity in another country) corresponds to the interests of the company and its shareholders, and is also the best practice of public companies to exit foreign offshore jurisdictions.

If redomication is implemented, according to Russian law, VK will become an "international public company." VK will be able to continue its activities as a legal entity in Russia, and the redomication procedure will help improve the efficiency of the company's management, VK said in a statement.

VK intends to maintain the status of a public company and regularly provide information on the progress of the redomication.

Creation of VK Play Investment

VK created a company to invest in game developers and allocated 300 million rubles for this. The holding announced this on February 9, 2023. Read more here.

2022

Changes to the manual

On December 26, 2022, VK announced new appointments. The changes are carried out as part of the company's strategy aimed at strengthening VK's position in the Russian market.

Ivan Myzdrikov has been appointed vice president for the development of mail services and the VK application store. Ivan will continue to lead RuStore, Mail, Cloud, Calendar projects and other productivity services that he previously oversaw as RuStore project manager and director of the Business Unit Mail.ru.

Alexander Tobol appointed Vice President, Technology and Development, VK. Alexander will continue to lead the technical team Vkontakte as technical director, social network as well as the direction of unified video platform technologies, VK Video services and. VK Calls VK Clips

Rustam Khaibullov has been appointed vice president for strategic projects at VK. Rustam will oversee the implementation of VK's key digitalization activities. Previously, he served as Director of the Department for the Implementation of Strategic Projects VK.

VK is actively developing and striving to become a center of technological expertise in Russia. I am sure that the experience of colleagues will help in achieving this ambitious goal. Ivan, Alexander and Rustam have established themselves as high-level professionals who know how to implement projects of any complexity. Their practical expertise in the development and implementation of advanced technologies in VK products makes a significant contribution to business development and has great potential to scale. I wish them good luck in the implementation of the upcoming tasks, - said VK CEO Vladimir Kiriyenko.

Launch Publisher Support Program

On December 6, 2022, VK announced the launch of a publisher support program. Sites that join in December could receive an additional 20% more revenue from. advertizing monetizations Also, an adaptive block for broadcasting ads on sites has become available to members of the partner network. On average, it increases revenue from ad listings by up to 50%.

{{quote 'Our December 2022 partner program brings together more than 23,000 sites and applications. On media and resource platforms dedicated to technology, science and education, art, sports and other topics, tens of millions of business ads from VK advertising platforms are shown every day. We strive to develop technologies so that they bring the highest possible result for advertisers and help partners earn more from monetizing their resources, "said Kamil Nasrullaev, director of the VK advertising network. }}

With the adaptive block, site owners can more effectively use the space on the page that they are willing to allocate for advertising. The system adapts elements so that one or several ads from VK Advertising and MyTarget platforms can be shown in it natively.

The appearance of ads is generated automatically on the basis of ready-made templates. In this case, publishers can, if necessary, control the settings of the advertising block. The first tests showed that this format increases revenue by an average of one and a half times compared to the standard banner.

In December, VK will support publishers and help boost their revenue. Additional sites in the partner network will be able to receive additional monetization revenue. The program will last until December 31, 2022.

Launch of an engineering and mathematical school - a joint educational project with the HSE

The Higher School of Economics announced on October 10, 2022 that, together with VK, they are opening enrollment in a joint educational project - the Engineering and Mathematics School. Within the framework of the project, HSE students will be able to undergo training in practice-oriented workshops in current and popular areas of IT: machine learning, the development of highly loaded applications and artificial intelligence technologies. Training is free, the number of places is limited. Read more here.

Label Development Direction Launch - VK Records

Another VK Records business area is emerging in the VK music ecosystem, which will create and manage its own music labels. This structure was headed by producer Viktor Abramov. VK announced this on September 29, 2022.

VK Records will look for talent inside and social networks Vkontakte sign already active artists. The business model implies the promotion of artists by 360 degrees with VK resources - this is, distribution producing and promoting, content developing the professional qualities of the artist, concerts advertizing and activities.

VK Records already includes two labels - VK Music Records and VK Beats Records. The first deals with the development of pop music, and the second works with rap artists. Several artists have already signed to the VK Music Records label, including Tim Akimov and ESMI.

In the future, it is planned that the number of labels will increase, and each will develop a separate musical direction. Labels will be created by genre of music - pop, rap, electronic and rock music.

Шаблон:Quote 'author=said Viktor Abramov, director of VK Records.

The ex-head of Rostelecom's daughter became the curator of the development of VK Messenger

On August 10, 2022, it became known about the transition to Farita Khusnoyarova the holding, in VK which ITRostelecomRT labs the former general director - "daughters" "" "headed the development unit". " VK messenger More. here

Preferential loan from the Government to avoid default

The Russian government has allocated Yandex, VK and Ozongot loans worth 130 billion rubles. The subsidy is required for companies to meet obligations to bondholders. This became known on August 4, 2022.

The information was confirmed by VK, noting that the company asked for a preferential loan "to restructure the resulting debt." Yandex reported that it took a target loan from a commercial bank for payments on Eurobonds. Credit rates will be subsidized as part of an agreement between banks and the government.

VK clarified that due to uncertainty related to subsidiaries by money transfer the Russian to its foreign holding company, "there is a possibility that the issuer will not have sufficient liquidity in its holding company to finance payments necessary for redemption if most holders decide to exercise the right to submit bonds for repayment." More. here

Creating a game development program with RTU MIREA

VK and RTU MIREA have created a game development program for undergraduate students looking to build careers in the field. The top graduates will have the opportunity to join the VK team, as the latter announced on July 11, 2022. Read more here.

Anton Malginov's appointment as executive director

On June 28, 2022, VK Company Limited informed TAdviser of the appointment of Anton Malginov, who previously served as head of the legal department of VK, as executive director of the company. At the same time, he joined the Board of Directors of VK. Read more here.

Agreement with HSE on the development of the undergraduate program "Digital innovations in enterprise management

On June 20, 2022, VK announced the conclusion of an agreement with the Higher School of Business HSE on a partnership to develop the undergraduate program "Digital Innovations in Enterprise Management." Read more here.

Appointment as the main developer of the Russian mobile application store

VK Holding has been identified as the main developer of the Russian mobile application store. On April 26, 2022, the head of the Ministry of Digital Science Maksut Shadayev told reporters about this. According to him, the store is being created in cooperation with other digital ecosystems, but he did not name specific companies. Read more here.

Create a Small and Medium Business Support Board

In March 2022, VK announced the creation of a community council to support medium and small businesses. The council included entrepreneurs and representatives of the public organization "SUPPORT OF RUSSIA." The main goal of the council is to help SMEs adapt to the conditions and take into account their interests in business development as much as possible.

We understand that many representatives of medium and small businesses work online. Together we are ready to develop and refine our services that will be convenient for entrepreneurs and users. To do this, we create a council that will take into account the ideas and proposals of the entrepreneurial community. Already in March 2022, more than 2 million entrepreneurs promote their goods and services on VKontakte, more than 100 thousand business communities were created in the last 12-13 March alone. On the Business of Vkontakte platform, entrepreneurs can find all the necessary tools to launch and develop their business on the Internet, "said VK CEO Vladimir Kiriyenko.

In turn, the Opora Rossii team will provide a comprehensive industry expertise on online sales mechanisms based on focus groups and gathering opinions from specialized business communities.

The VK Council will become a platform for open dialogue and a single window for the prompt collection and elaboration of proposals from entrepreneurs throughout the country. Experts will also share in the conditions.

The council included:

• Alexander Kalinin, President of OPORA ROSSII
• Yuri Novikov, Head of Business Unit of Classifaida, Small and Medium Business and E-Commerce VK
• Evgenia Lazareva, creator of the MAMANONSTOP trademark
• Elena Krasnova, co-owner of Tkanoff Group and founder of the Sk Selektion brand
• Marina Ross, founder of the Hydrop brand

A community for business is working to collect information on VKontakte. Any entrepreneur will be able to propose his ideas of projects and initiatives within the community that will help his business or the development of the sector as a whole. The council will promptly process all applications and develop new support measures, including involving partners.

This will also help the direction of support for small and medium-sized businesses that VK has launched. Support and up-to-date information about platform and tool updates in the community are available to entrepreneurs around the clock.

Inclusion of CEO Vladimir Kiriyenko in the US sanctions list

In February 2022, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against VK CEO Vladimir Kiriyenko, son of the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko. The holding said that the restrictions imposed on the head would not affect the work of the company. Read more here.

2021

Appointment of Vladimir Kiriyenko as General Director

On 13 December 2021, VK Company Limited announced that the Board of Directors had unanimously voted to appoint Vladimir Kiriyenko VK as CEO (). Russia The decision takes effect immediately. Vladimir replaced in this post, Boris Dobrodeeva which in early December, after changing the company's shareholder structure "MF Technologiya" declared , about his intention to leave the position of VK CEO. More. here

Name change from Mail.ru Group to VK

On October 12, 2021, the Mail.ru Group holding announced a rebranding, in which its name will be changed to VK.

VK is a single brand for the entire company. Unlike Mail.ru Group, it will be presented not only at the corporate level, but also in our products, whose users have not always seen their connection with each other, the press release says.

According to Boris Dobrodeev, CEO of Mail.ru Group, a single brand will emphasize all the opportunities that the ecosystem provides: communication and games, education (from school to professional), delivery of medicines and products, taxis, car sharing and online purchases, all business opportunities, etc. Dobrodeev added that all new products of the company will be immediately created under the VK brand.

The only exception will be the subsidiary of My.Games, which produces games, since its activities are primarily focused on the foreign market. For example, Mail.Ru will combine its advertising products under the name "VK Advertising," the advertising service "Yula" will become "VK Announcements," and Boom - "VK Music."

As Boris Dobrodeev noted, the company conducted a study that showed that not every ecosystem user knows that he uses Mail.ru Group products - that is, they perceived services as if from different brands. At the same time, the VK brand has one hundred percent recognition among Runet users. Vkontakte is used daily by about 70% of Internet users in Russia.

The name of the legal entity and ticker are expected to be changed in stages. Rebranding will not lead to changes in the operating structure of the business and reporting.

She plans to completely "streamline" all brands during 2022. Some b2b products will also receive new names, but legal entities will change later and will be technical. Managers will warn counterparties in advance.^[6]

Give ITMO access to Mail.ru Cloud Solutions

Mail.ru Group and ITMO are expanding cooperation in the field of educational and research projects. This was announced on August 30, 2021 by Mail.ru Digital Technologies. Read more here.

Creation of an educational holding based on EdTech assets

On August 10, 2021, Mail.ru Group announced the creation of an educational holding based on the EdTech services Skillbox and GeekBrains. The new structure was named Skillbox Limited. More than half (50.06%) of the company will be owned by the Mail.ru Group, 22.72% will be owned by the founders of Skillbox, and 14.21% will be owned by Alexander Galitsky's Almaz Capital Partners fund. Another 13% is reserved for a long-term employee motivation program. Read more here.

Mail.ru Group employees can now switch to a hybrid work model forever

Mail.ru Group is introducing a hybrid employee employment model on an ongoing basis. This was announced by the general director of the company Boris Dobrodeev during a speech at the Gaidar Forum on January 14, 2021.

According to him, before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the company conducted experiments on the transition to a hybrid format, four different options were tested, but due to the restriction of work in the office amid the spread of COVID-19, the experiments were suspended. Dobrodeev noted that the Mail.ru Group plans to resume these pilot projects.

As soon as the epidemic lets go, we plan to return to these experiments. This is definitely a hybrid, but it is not yet clear in what form, and the costs will depend on the form, "he said.

The company has not yet determined which format of hybrid work is preferable, since in different industries and even within different teams of the group there are different needs for interaction and communication of employees.

The head of the Mail.ru Group cited data according to which 5% of the company's employees want to return to permanent office work, 30% of employees are in favor of remote work, and the rest are in favor of a hybrid employment format.

Boris Dobrodeev recalled that due to the spread of the coronavirus, the company transferred its employees (about 8 thousand people) to remote work at the end of March. Efficiency results - quantitative and qualitative - exceeded expectations, he said, adding that 2020. has become one of the most effective for the company over the past 5-6 years.

I think the hybrid, in terms of both employee and employer, if costs are not taken, looks like the most correct and balanced form of employment. I think we will live in an era of eternal hybrid, - said the general director of Mail.ru Group.[7]

2020

In the top 50 largest Internet sites in the world

GC "Hals" sold the tower "A" of the SkyLight business center, which is leased from Mail.ru Group until 2026

At the end of December 2020, the Hals group announced the sale of Tower A of the SkyLight business center, which was fully leased to the Mail.ru Group until April 2026 (this building houses the headquarters of the Internet holding). Read more here.

The pandemic has emboldened the online education business Mail.ru. The company is counting billions

In the third quarter of 2020, revenue from the direction of online education of the Mail.ru Group exceeded 1.6 billion rubles. This was stated by Matthew Hammond, Managing and CFO of Mail.ru Group, during a conference call with top managers of the company and analysts on quarterly results. According to him, year by year this direction has grown 2.9 times.

From what was said by the top manager of the Mail.ru Group during the call, it follows that the predominant part of the revenue in the field of online education is brought by two projects - an online university Skillbox and an educational portal. GeekBrains Both specialize mainly in IT-related training.

Matthew Hammond noted that during the second quarter of 2020, Mail.ru Group increased its stake in Skillbox to 70%. And in GeekBrains, according to the database of legal entities Kontur. Focus, "the company owns a share of 51%. Mail.ru Group also has stakes in Algoritmika and Tetrika, which Hammond did not mention during the call, and in Skillfactory.

According to the Kontur.Focus database, Skillbox's revenue at the end of 2019 amounted to about 811.7 million rubles, GeekBrains - about 888.3 million rubles with revenue dynamics of 138% and 84%, respectively.

According to Matthew Hammond, the company expects that by the end of 2020, its assets in the field of online education will total more than 5 billion rubles. For 2019, the Mail.ru Group did not specify TAdviser indicators, noting that only in 2020 they began to disclose figures for this segment, as it is actively growing.

A significant contribution to the growth of this direction in 2020 was made by the pandemic. The top manager of the Mail.ru Group during a conference call stressed that online education was among the areas where unprecedented demand appeared at the peak of isolation.

We continue to observe that online education is among the sectors most positively affected by the pandemic. Therefore, we continue to invest in this area, - says the managing and financial director of Mail.ru Group. - Now we are focused on the vertical of a career in the field of "numbers," but we also see opportunities in other segments of online education.

The representative of Mail.ru Group also said that the company intends to continue investing in online education organically and inorganic as promising areas appear. He reminded the participants of the call that earlier Mail.ru Group created a joint venture with Rostelecom to develop software for schools.

Creating a Digital Transformation Services Division

In July 2020, it was announced that the Mail. ru Group is creating a new division that will promote comprehensive services for the digital transformation of traditional business and the training of top managers of companies.

The direction was headed by Vice President of Mail.ru Group Elina Isagulova.

As part of Mail's new division. ru Group begins to provide companies of any size with the full range of holding products and services, including digital promotion and advertising, marketing solutions and predictive analytics tools, cloud services, corporate communications products and enterprise automation.

The company will also train 50 top managers for the Executive Digital MBA business digitalization program for free. Priority will be given to top managers of strategic companies.

TAdviser interview with Customer Service Director Alexei Pechenin

In July 2020, Alexei Pechenin, Customer Relations Director of the Mail.ru for Business platform, told TAdviser in an interview how Mail.ru for Business is turning into the largest player in the corporate communications market. Read more here.

Access to the Moscow Stock Exchange

On July 2, 2020, the Mail.ru Group entered the Moscow Exchange. The company's GDR Global Depositary Receipts (ISIN US5603172082) began trading under the ticker symbol MAIL on the Tier 1 quote list.

The cost of securities at the time of opening trading amounted to 1700.2 rubles, follows from the data of the Moscow Exchange. In the first minutes of trading, the paper fell to 1,692 rubles, but then recovered to the level of opening and continued to rise. At the maximum, the value of shares rose to 1792 rubles. By 12:30 Moscow time, the course amounted to 1698 rubles.

Vykhod to the Moscow Stock Exchange is a landmark event in the history of the company, thanks to which millions of Russians will be able to become our shareholders. There are more and more retail investors in Russia - and now they will also have access to our securities, "said Boris Dobrodeev, CEO of Mail.ru Group.

The company added that listing on the Moscow Exchange is one of the most important requirements for the further inclusion of securities in stock indices. Thanks to this, more investment funds that are interested in the Russian market will be able to learn about the Mail.ru Group, the holding hopes. According to Dobrodeev, the listing can increase the potential liquidity of securities owned by institutional investors, as well as expand the investor base.

The listing on the Moscow Exchange will not be accompanied by an additional issue, so free float shares will be traded at the auction. Thus, during the listing, about 100 million GDRs were placed on the Moscow Exchange. According to the company, about 50% are in free circulation.

By the beginning of July 2020, the share capital of Mail.ru Group was represented by 11,500,100 shares of class A and 208 582 082 ordinary shares, according to the company's own data. Class A shares have 25 votes with the same economic share as ordinary shares.

Analysts expect the company's GDR to be included in the MSCI Russia index in November 2020, which, according to VTB Capital analysts, could lead to a passive inflow of $210 million in investments.^[8]

Inclusion in the list of backbone companies in Russia

On April 3, 2020, it became known that the Government of the Russian Federation included Мэйл.ру in the list of backbone companies. In total, 646 organizations were on the list. In addition to Mail.Ru Group, the list includes such IT companies as SKB Kontur, 1C, Yandex. Read more here.

Allocation of a billion rubles to support medium and small businesses

On March 26, 2020, Mail.ru Group announced the allocation of a billion rubles to support medium and small businesses.

author = Boris Dobrodeev, head of Mail.Ru Group The spread of the virus has changed people's daily lives, and this in turn has affected the whole business. For large players, forced restrictions have become a serious stress, but their scale allows you to quickly rebuild processes and cope with difficulties. It is much more difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises, according to which the coronavirus and forced sanitary restrictions have dealt a serious blow. Small companies provide well-being and income for tens of millions of people - with many in a critical situation. From the first day of the threat, we help society restore or at least try to recreate the usual life with our products. We believe it is our duty to take a step forward - and help small and medium-sized companies. To do this, we have created an operational headquarters and allocate various resources in the amount of 1 billion rubles,

According to the statement of the head of Mail.Ru Group, the allocated funds in the amount of 1 billion rubles will go to help:

1. Companies and entrepreneurs in general: VKontakte and Odnoklassniki will double the budgets for the promotion of small and medium-sized businesses: in mobile advertising offices;
2. Companies and entrepreneurs who provide services remotely and at home: the ad service Spinning top opens free placement of up to 200 ads per month and introduces the possibility of free promotion for bonuses;
3. Companies that are forced to transfer processes online: we will prepare a free package of services from the Mail.ru for Business platform;
4. Restaurant business: Delivery Club will reduce the commission for all partners connected to the platform, and VKontakte will allocate grants for the first promotion for cafes and restaurants;
5. Companies from the sphere: real estate the digital agency real estate"" 33 Elephants will give up its share in the commission in favor of realtors and agencies;
6. Companies that have faced personnel problems: the job search service and Worki employees will charge bonus rubles to the accounts of businesses affected by the crisis. In addition, the service will allow you to extend the validity of already paid services with the ability to use them later;
7. Taxi drivers: taxi aggregator Citymobil compensates drivers for income lost during downtime - if the reason for the downtime was that the driver fell ill with coronavirus or was in contact with sick passengers. In addition, the company already provides taxi drivers with masks, antiseptics and disinfectants.

2019

Entering the top three earning mobile app developers in Europe

Mail.ru Group became one of the three most earning mobile application developers in Europe at the end of 2019. This is stated in a study conducted by the analytical company App Annie. The data were released on January 17, 2020. Read more here.

Agreement with IBS to jointly develop and implement big data management technologies

On November 11, 2019, IBS announced that, together with the Mail.ru Group, they agreed on the joint development and implementation of big data management technologies, as well as on long-term cooperation in the field of innovative development and the creation of sustainable technical solutions in the Russian market. The agreement was signed by IBS CEO Svetlana Balanova and Mail.ru Digital Technologies Managing Director Pavel Gontarev on November 9, 2019.

and Mail.Ru Cloud Solutions (MCS) Arenadata (a subsidiary of IBS) will jointly develop cloudy a platform that addresses all business storages and processing challenges. data IBS integrates into an ecosystem Arenadata Enterprise Data Platform (EDP) developed by the Mail.ru Group platform, Tarantool which is responsible for processing data in real time. This will expand the Arenadata EDP use case set and give customers additional competitive advantage across the organization. data stores

Arenadata Enterprise Data Platform consists of massively parallel DBMS Arenadata DB based, Greenplum message broker Arenadata Streaming () Kafka and distribution. Arenadata Hadoop The platform is available in the MCS cloud.

As part of the agreement, IBS becomes a partner in the implementation and promotion of Mail.ru Group products for the corporate sector. The list of products includes the Tarantool data integration platform, which combines the speed inherent in caching systems and the reliability of industrial solutions. They also include the Mail.ru Cloud Solutions cloud platform, which includes a wide range of infrastructure and platform services for storing and working efficiently with big data.

Announcement of a single gaming brand My.Games

On May 30, 2019, the Mail.ru Group announced that the company's gaming direction for the first time since its inception in 2009 carried out a large-scale rebranding: it revised the global positioning, changed the name and presented an updated corporate identity. All game projects of the company in Russia (published under the Mail.ru Group brand) and abroad (the My.com brand) have merged under the same My.Games brand.

According to representatives of the Mail.ru Group, the name presented emphasizes the company's approach to developing its business: My.Games offers users a wide range of game projects, including games of different genres and for all popular platforms, as well as game services and media.

Along with the changed brand name, the updated logo was presented - it is based on simple and clear forms. The symbol highlights the dynamics and variety of gaming experiences that My.Games offers its users. The same idea is reflected in the brand's signature style: color palette, textures and signature font.

Over the past few years, we have strengthened our international presence, significantly increasing our share of international revenue. With us are more than half a billion players from 190 countries of the world, to whom we provide daily access to a variety of games, services, esports tournaments and festivals. It is time to present a global brand for our gaming business, which will unite all the key areas of our work and create comfortable conditions for interaction with our products and solutions for players and partners around the world, - commented on the event Vasily Maguryan, CEO My.Games

My.Games will have 11 in-house studios with more than 1,500 employees from 10 regional offices around the world to publish and develop games. Also, the investment division of MRGV will continue its active development, which has already invested in 15 game studios in two years of operation and continues to accept applications from developers from all over the world.

The company plans to launch a global gaming platform that will allow the presentation of existing game projects and the diverse infrastructure of the division to players and partners around the world.

Opening of "Mail.Ru Digital Technologies" division

On April 26, 2019, Mail.ru Group announced the opening of the Mail.Ru Digital Technologies division, which will continue the company's strategy for the development of the B2B direction.

Business products from Mail.ru Group are already available to the market:, cloud services Mail.Ru Cloud Solutions a development project, databases Tarantool solutions for corporate socialization and communications. Further, the main task will be to bring technologies and digital products developed by the Mail.ru Group to the corporate market, which will be able to help large and medium-sized businesses in digitalization. Headed "Mail.Ru Digital Technologies." Pavel Gontarev More. here

The Internet environment has become an incubator of innovations in big data, e-commerce and the Internet of Things. Our mission is to make these technologies available to businesses from traditional industries that really want to "digitalize," - said Pavel Gontarev, head of Mail.Ru Digital Technologies. "I am glad to lead a new direction in the company and hope that we will become a technological partner for Russian companies of any scale."

Creating the MRG Tech Lab Direction

Mail.ru Group on March 1, 2019 announced the creation of the MRG Tech Lab, which will include groups of experts from various divisions of the company. MRG Tech Lab will use the experience gained to create technologies and products that will enter the company's ecosystem in the future.

According to Boris Dobrodeev, CEO of Mail.ru Group, in 2019 the company plans to invest from 1 to 1.5 billion rubles in the development of MRG Tech Lab.

2018

State growth by nearly a quarter

In 2018, the staff of Mail.Ru Group increased by 1.1 thousand people and amounted to 5.773 thousand people, follows from the company's annual report published in April. Thus, the number of group employees increased by 23.5%.

Dmitry Smyslov, vice president for human resources and educational projects at Mail.ru Group, told TAdviser that given the growth of the business, the company hired people in different directions. First of all, we are talking about IT specialists and employees included in the IT ecosystem: product managers, marketers, analysts.

According to Smyslov, in 2018, Mail.Ru Group significantly strengthened the e-commerce teams of the direction. In addition, teams of data storage and analysis systems, cloud services, gaming, GeekBrains, VKontakte and other projects of the group have increased, he says.

The annual report of Mail.Ru Group notes that a significant part of its employees have significant experience in the product and technical environment, allowing them to generate new ideas and contribute to the development of existing products. In 2018, the company's R&D units mainly focused on e-commerce, machine learning, advertising technology, communications products and mobile gaming.

Mail.Ru Group points to high and competition for qualified personnel in the Internet industry in Russia, and in its annual report, the company classifies it as one of its business risks.

Establishment of the Big Data Market Participants Association

On October 16, 2018, MegaFon, Mail.Ru Group, oneFactor, Tinkoff Bank, Yandex and Sberbank established the Association of Big Data Market Participants. Anna Serebryanikova, operating di⁠rektor of MegaFon, was elected President of the organization. The Board of the Association included representatives of all founding companies. The main goal of the organization is to create conditions for the development of technologies and products in the field of big data in Russia. Read more here.

Denis Anikin appointed CIO

On July 25, 2018, Mail.Ru Group announced the appointment of Denis Anikin to the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO). According to TAdviser in Mail.Ru Group, the position of CIO in the company was created for the first time in connection with the expansion of the e-commerce direction and the emergence of new business tasks (more...).

Launch of Mail.Ru Cloud Solutions

In January 2018, Mail.Ru Group merged all cloud services for business (Infra, Hotbox and Icebox) into a separate direction under the Mail.Ru Cloud Solutions (MCS) brand. Read more here.

2017

Falling under Ukrainian sanctions

On May 16, 2017, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, by his decree, enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on sanctions against Russian companies and their subsidiaries in Ukraine. In total, 468 legal entities were on the sanctions list, of which 81 were related to the IT sphere. Among the companies that fell under the sanctions were also Mail.ru Group and its Ukrainian subsidiary Мейл.ру Ukraїna. Read more here.

Mail.Ru Group invests $100 million in the gaming industry

On April 25, 2017, Mail.Ru Group announced the creation of a specialized investment division of Mail.Ru Games Ventures. Within its framework, the company plans to invest $100 million in Russian and international projects in the field of games and game development over the next two years, 10 million of which have already been allocated for upcoming transactions. The ^[9]

MegaFon and Sberbank entered into a loan agreement to buy shares in Mail.Ru Group

MegaFon and Sberbank signed an agreement at the beginning of the year to open a credit line in the amount of 35 billion rubles and maturity in 2024. The loan received will be used to finance the acquisition of a 15.2% stake in the authorized capital of Mail.Ru Group, which represent 63.8% of the voting shares.

The agreement also changes the terms of three existing credit lines totaling RUB 97.2 billion received by MegaFon in 2012 and 2016: interest rates are reduced and the terms of early repayment are revised.

In February, Megafon announced the completion of a deal to acquire a controlling stake in the Mail.ru Group holding. The sellers were offshore companies New Media and Technology Investment, New Media Technologies Capital Partners and Ardoe Finance, owned by the controlling shareholder of Megafon, Alisher Usmanov's USM group.

During the transaction, 11.5 million shares of class "A" and 21.9 million of class "B" were sold. Shares of Mail.ru Group class "A" have 25 votes per security, class "B" - one vote per share. Collectively, this stake represents 15.2% of the total number of shares of the Mail.ru Group and 63.8% of the voting shares.

At the time of the transaction, Megafon paid the sellers $640 million. Another $100 million will be paid on the first anniversary of the transaction, and thus the total amount of the acquisition will be $740 million.

2016

Significant events of the year

• Mail.Ru Group is a leading Internet company in Russia with a monthly active audience of 77.7 million users (comScore MMX Multi-Platform, Russia, age from 6 years, December 2016); The monthly active audience of VKontakte reached 95 million users (internal data, December 2016).

• Mail.Ru Group acquired 100% of Delivery Club - online service for ordering ready-made food No. 1 in Russia; since the acquisition, the number of orders has grown by more than 60%.

• The rideshare service has been launched BeepCar (available on, and in iOS Android the web version).
• Updated our mobile service of free ads Yula: added a new algorithm for displaying the feed of ads, recommendations of similar products, user ratings and subscriptions to sellers.
• Yula's active audience reached 2 million users per day and 9.6 million per month.
• Restart of the Mail.Ru for Business project as a single platform for access to all B2B services of the Company
• Launched Cloud for Business, a B2B service that offers solutions for cold and hot storage, as well as storage for collaboration.
• Mail.Ru mail service introduced the function of deferred sending of letters.
• Photo and video gallery appeared in the Mail.Ru Cloud applications for iOS and Android, as well as paid tariffs optimized for storing media files.
• The VK Live mobile application has started for real-time video streaming, as well as streaming directly to the news feed on VKontakte with the ability to comment and send gifts and stickers.
• On VKontakte (on iOS and Android), a feature for creating "Stories" has appeared, allowing users to instantly share photos and videos that are available for 24 hours. Viewing "Stories" is also available in the website version of the site.
• VKontakte has offered an advanced API for groups and public pages that allows you to create built-in applications for polls, chats, donations, ticket sales, reservations, etc.
• In the news feed in Odnoklassniki, publications began to be displayed that were commented on by the user's friends, as well as avatars of friends next to their "Classes."
• The OK Live app has additional streaming options (animated filters, masks, streamer drawings), the feed of the best streamers and stream statistics.
• Mail.Ru Group acquired a license to operate Warface in North America and Europe.
• MMORPG Revelation Online has been launched in Russia.
• The mobile MOBA game Planet of Heroes on iOS was launched on a limited number of territories ("soft launch").
• War Robots has added new content and updated the team game interface.
• MAPS.ME has real-time traffic congestion information and compression of this data, as well as a new route-building algorithm.
• The CPI optimization model has become available to all myTarget customers.
• A cross-platform video advertising format is presented in the news feed on social networks.
• The monthly reach of mobile partner advertising network myTarget reached 82 million active users from more than 2,600 third-party applications - in addition to Mail.Ru Group's own platforms.

Sale of controlling interest in MegaFon

On December 23, 2016, MegaFon announced the purchase of a controlling stake in Mail.Ru Group, owned by USM Group companies and representing approximately 63.8% of Mail.Ru Group's voting shares.

Under the terms of the proposed transaction, MegaFon will acquire 11.5 million Class A shares and 21.9 million ordinary shares in the capital of Mail.Ru Group, representing approximately 63.8% of the voting shares of Mail.Ru Group, with New Media and Technology Investment LP, New Media Technologies Capital Partners Limited и Ardoe Finance Limited, members of the USM group, for an agreed cash consideration of $640 million, to be paid at the time of closing the transaction, as well as the payment of a deferred payment of $100 million a year after the closing of the transaction.

The deal is aimed at obtaining significant synergies for both companies, including expanding the range and methods of promoting digital services, MegaFon"" the launch of a special offer ^[10] users of the social network VKontakte and other possible initiatives, MegaFon said in a statement.

After completion of the transaction, MegaFon and Mail.Ru will continue to operate completely on market terms. The management teams of both companies will be independent and aimed at maintaining the established corporate culture and corporate governance of each company, ensuring the ongoing development and development of new products, as well as cooperation in strategically and economically mutually beneficial projects. Any possible agreements between the companies will be concluded on commercial, fully market terms. It is not expected that significant changes will occur in Mail.Ru's main operating activities and corporate governance system.

The transaction was recommended for approval by a special committee of MegaFon's board of directors, which includes non-executive and independent directors. On December 23, 2016, the Company's Board of Directors approved the convening of an extraordinary meeting of shareholders on January 20, 2017 to approve the transaction. The transaction is also subject to agreement with the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, and also depends on a number of factors independent of MegaFon.

Morgan Stanley acts as a financial adviser to MegaFon, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP acts as a legal adviser to the company. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is a financial adviser to MegaFon's special committee and has been preparing an opinion on price fairness, White & Case serves as a legal adviser to the company's special committee.

The companies' cooperation will focus on two areas:

1) Offering mobile services for VKontakte users: MegaFon will be able to use the VKontakte brand to create a new mobile offer. The new service, VK Mobile, will use the MegaFon/Scartel network and infrastructure. This will lead to the expansion of the VKontakte mobile ecosystem and an increase in brand recognition, increasing the involvement of VKontakte users.

2) Data Analytics Collaboration: Companies will collaborate in predictive data analytics to improve user segmentation. The agreement will be useful for both parties: for Mail.Ru Group - for advertising targeting technologies, and for MegaFon - for a more efficient sale of telecommunications services. The agreements were approved by all disinterested directors of Mail.Ru Group. The start of their implementation is scheduled for the first half of 2017. Cooperation in both areas is carried out on commercial market conditions. Revenue sharing will be made according to the agreed commercial formula.

Charge of leaking 57m passwords and user accounts

On May 6, 2016, Mail.Ru Group commented on the leak of millions of accounts to the company's services. The Internet holding called the theft of accounts "informational stuffing."

In early May 2016, Hold Security, led by cybersecurity expert Alex Holden, announced that it was aware of one Russian hacker with 272.3 million accounts of users of Mail.Ru, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. In the case of Mail.ru, data on 57 million pairs of logins and passwords belonging to 64 million users were published.

Mail.Ru Group analyzed the information from the stolen database and came to the conclusion that 99.982% of the Mail.Ru Mail service accounts included in it are invalid.

With a high degree of probability, it (database - approx. TAdviser) is compiled from fragments of numerous old password login databases from hacking various online services, where users used their e-mail as a login. This suggests that this report is a competent informational stuffing aimed at drawing attention to Holden's business in the field of providing cybersecurity services, the Mail.Ru Group said.

According to the conclusion of information security specialists Mail.Ru Group, almost one in four Mail.Ru Mail accounts from Alex Holden's database contain a never-existing email address, almost 65% of accounts have the wrong password. Just over 12% of accounts were classified as suspicious (either hacked or created by a robot) and were blocked.

The data of 57 million Mail.ru users could be "leaked" not only through the email service, but also through other resources, says viral analyst Avast Michal Salat. - The problem with all major data breaches is that people often use the same passwords on different resources and do not change them. Therefore, databases such as Mail.ru, Facebook or Amazon can be easily used to attack and hack users of other services. The fact that mails and user passwords were found in the database does not necessarily mean that these combinations are intended for accounts on the Mail.ru Mail.ru. This data can be logins and passwords for logging in, for example, on Facebook,,, etc "VKontate" Twitter.

Creating a Big Data Business Unit

On January 18, 2016, Mail.Ru Group announced the creation of a division responsible for providing Big Data analysis services to third-party customers. This was reported on the website of the Internet company.

Within the framework of this area, Mail.Ru plans to provide services for the creation of predictive mathematical models, marketing research, consulting in the field of infrastructure development and big data methodology. Roman Styatyugin has been appointed Big Data Business Development Director.

To provide big data services and implement projects in this area, Mail.Ru Group intends to use both its own technologies (for example, Tarantool databases) and various open source solutions (Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, etc.). To build predictive mathematical models, it is planned to use machine learning methods, as well as own developments, including the Multiclass Look-alike model construction algorithm, which is a development of the PU Learning method.

According to Dmitry Sergeyev, Deputy General Director of Mail.Ru, the company has been engaged in Big Data almost from its very foundation, which allowed it to accumulate enough experience to provide such services to third-party customers.

First of all, these are projects that are aimed at seriously improving the efficiency of marketing and sales processes, optimizing production, logistics, risk management, planning, human resources and other workflows of various businesses. In this regard, it was decided to separate this work into a separate unit, - explained Dmitry Sergeyev.

Mail.Ru notes that in the development of competence and training in the field of big data analysis, companies cooperate with leading Russian educational institutions, including the Lomonosov Moscow State University. There, in 2014, on the basis of the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, the educational project "Technosphere Mail.Ru" was launched, within the framework of which Mail.Ru employees conduct courses on machine learning and deep data analysis.^[11]

2014

Significant events of the year

• Acquired MAPS.ME, a popular service that provides offline maps and navigation for mobile devices based on OpenStreetMap data. Soon after the acquisition, MAPS.ME apps became free
• New versions of myMail applications are optimized for iOS 8 and Android 5, and also support offline actions with letters
• Implemented two-factor authentication (password + code in SMS) on most Mail.Ru projects and in mobile applications
• Mail Mail.Ru has the ability to group letters into chains (threads)
• Mail Mail.Ru has presented a convenient tool "Filter mailings," which allows you to automatically sort incoming emails by special folders "Discounts," "Social networks," "Mailings"
• Implemented to view files from archives attached to letters directly in the browser
• The Mail.Ru cloud is out of beta testing mode. In addition, the service introduced the ability to collaborate with folders and updated applications for iOS and Android with features aimed at improving security
• Updated VKontakte photo editor: new engine, additional photo filters, improved image editing capabilities
• Updated the backend and design of the "Video" section of VKontakte
• New VKontakte applications optimized for iOS 8 and Android 5 (updated interface design and usability)
• Gifts appeared in the Android application and the mobile web version of VKontakte; changed the Stickers section on all platforms
• Mobile advertising launched on VKontakte
• Updated OK.RU video service: new viewing mode and auto-playback
• Updated message system in OK.RU: dialogue redesign, gift recommendations in birthday reminder, paid and free stickers
• OK.RU applications for Android, iOS and Windows Phone have the ability to leave voice and video messages
• ICQ for iOS and Android has advanced search, new push notifications, updated audio and video calling interface, accelerated photo sending
• The design of the Mail.Ru Agent for iOS and Android has been completely updated; also, messenger applications began to work much faster. Synchronization of message history is implemented, it became possible to send several photos or videos at once
• SkyForge Closed Beta Started
• "Evolution: The Battle for Utopia" was included in the lists of the best games of the year on Google Play and the App Store; Dominion Legacy update released on Android and iOS
• Major Warface update released - Operation Snow Bastion
• The Goroscopov application Mail.Ru was included in the list of the best Android applications of 2014 according to Google and in the list of the best new applications for iOS according to Apple
• HTTPS is enabled by default on all content projects of the Mail.Ru portal
• Project Dengi.Mail.Ru sold to QIWI

Usmanov received full control over the Mail.ru Group

In July 2014, the Mail.ru Group announced the decision of its main shareholders - USM Holdings Alisher Usmanov and South African holding Naspers - to convert their stakes.

Naspers converts all Class A shares it owns - 43.1 million (the holding owns them through the MIH Mail Inheritance Company offshore) - into ordinary shares. The structures of USM Holdings - New Media and Technology Investment and Ardoe Finance - convert 25.9 million of the 37 million class "A" shares they own.

Naspers, in addition to class "A" shares, also had 17 million ordinary shares, that is, now the holding will have 60.1 million ordinary shares at its disposal. One ordinary share of Mail.ru Group has one vote, one share of class "A" - 25 votes per security. Initially, class "A" shares could not be sold: before that, they had to be converted into ordinary shares from a ratio of 1:1. But Mail.ru Group shareholders recently approved a charter change allowing the free sale of Class "A" shares.

At the time of Mail.ru Group's IPO, Class "A" shares were distributed among various owners, including early investors in the company and its founders. But gradually they converted and sold their shares, and as a result, only Naspers and USM Holdings remained with securities of this type. At the same time, after each conversion of class "A" shares, the total number of votes decreased, and the voting shares of these persons increased.

Despite the fact that Naspers owned the largest stake in Mail.ru Group securities (both class "A" shares and collectively all types of shares), Alisher Usmanov became the controlling shareholder of the company. This is due to the peculiarities of the charter of the Mail.ru Group, prohibiting one non-resident of Russia from voting more than 35%. As a result, USM Holdings' voting share was 58.1%.

After the current conversion, Usmanov's voting share will grow to 64.6%, and the share of votes that Naspers can dispose of will decrease from 35% to 12%. As a result, Naspers will not be able to block decisions at shareholder meetings that require approval of more than 75% of the vote, for example, on changing the charter, issuing new shares, re-election of the board of directors, etc. The economic shares of both structures will remain the same: 17.9% and 29%, respectively.

Mail.ru Group welcomed the changes in equity.

"Every conversion of class" A "shares required us to publish the relevant investment prospectuses, but now we hope that this will be the last conversion," says the company's CFO Matthew Hammond. - In addition, the total voting share of our minority shareholders is increasing, which is also positive for us^[12]

Usmanov, manager of telecommunications and media assets Ivan Tavrin , assures that the entrepreneur still sees prospects in the Mail.ru Group and intends to remain in the company. Representative Naspers Mark Sorour also says that the holding sees a great future for the Mail.ru Group, but the ownership of securities of this company through class "A" shares did not meet the holding's strategy.

2011

Yuri Milner sells part of the company's shares

September 21, 2011 it became known that the co-founder of Mail.ru Group Yuri Milner gets rid of part of the company's shares, reports Bloomberg^[13]. The amount of the transaction can be up to $60.7 million. Based on the current quotations of GDR Mail.ru Group on the LSE ($36.24 per receipt) at $60.7 million, approximately 0.8% of the company's shares can be estimated.

What package of Mail.ru Group remains with Milner is unknown. From the prospectus of the Mail.ru Group, issued on the eve of the IPO, held in November 2011, it followed that after the IPO, the three founders of the company - Milner, Grigory Finger and Mikhail Vincel - will own 20,296,000 class A shares, which make up 10.3% of the authorized capital and 17.4% of the voting shares. Of these, more than half (at least 12,000,000 shares) have Finger.

Milner, one of the largest co-owners of the company, was also one of the most active sellers of shares during its public offering in November 2010. As part of this IPO and option to re-sign, the Mail.ru Group and its shareholders received about $1 billion.

From the moment of the IPO until about the middle of the summer of 2010, a ban on their sale on the market was in effect for shareholders who put Mail.ru Group shares on the stock exchange. In early August, GDR Mail.ru Group on the LSE traded at $35.75 per receipt, yesterday they cost $36.4.

$34m board options, Matthew Hammond head of SD

In April 2011, the website of the London Stock Exchange announced that the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group was granted options for the purchase of 53.532 shares (each of the directors) and 305.132 shares to Yuri Milner. In addition, the board changed its managing director, it was Matthew Hammond, who replaced Alexander Tamas. Options can be exercised at the offering price in 2010 (at $27.7 per share). At this time, the exchange value of Mail.ru Group securities is about $34. Thus, since the IPO, the director's "award" has grown to just over $300 thousand and to $1.9 million was the Yuri Milner Prize.

The Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group includes 9 people:

• Marcos Galperin,
• Sang Hun Kim,
• Gregory Finger,
• Vladimir Streshinskiy,
• Hein Pretorius,
• Vasileios Sgourdos,
• Ardavan Moshiri,
• Matthew Hammond и
• Mark Remon Sorour.

2011 Asset Overview

In 2011, the company's assets included:

Assets of Mail.ru Group

|Mail.ru|Odnoklassniki|ICQ|VK.com|Qiwi Investments|Facebook|Habrahabr|Liveinternet|Nigma|Nival Networks

Aktiv	Share of Mail.ru Group	Type of activity
Key assets
100,00%	Internet Portal
100,00%	Odnoklassniki social network
100,00%	Internet messenger
Newton Rose	97,00%	HR service Headhunter.ru
Strategic assets
39,9%	VKontakte social network
21,35%	Qiwi Express Payment Terminals
Foreign assets
0,52%	Social network
Other assets in Russia
B2B	15,00%	b2b online bidding system b2b-center.ru
Diary.ru	50,00%	Blog service
Free-lance	38,00%	Free-lance Search Service
44,00%	Collective Blog
Internest	20,00%	Developer of online advertising system adviser.ru, soloway.ru
30,00%	Online statistics system and blog service li.ru
32,00%	Meta-search engine
13,00%	Developer and operator of online games zzima.ru
Sape	27,00%	Link Exchange
Subscribe	40,00%	Mail Subscription and Marketing Service
Ucoz	30,00%	Hosting and web development tools
Assets in Ukraine
Finance.ua	25,00%	Business Portal
Meta	26,00%	Portal meta.ua
Nadavi	25,00%	Product Price Comparison Service nadavi.com.ua
Nezabarom	25,00%	Tourism Portal of nezabarom.com.ua

Through its subsidiaries, Mail.ru Group also owns other assets, including:

• more than 30% in the Mamba.ru portal (via Mail.ru)

2010

China's Tencent Holdings to invest $300m in DST

In April 2010, China's Tencent Holdings announced a $300 million investment in Digital Sky Technologies (DST) and a strategic partnership between the two companies. The Chinese company paid $300 million for the additional issue of DST Ltd. In exchange for its money, Tencent will receive 10.26% of DST preferred shares and 0.51% of voting shares, as well as the right to nominate one candidate to the fund's board of directors.

Tencent needs a deal with DST to benefit from Russia's fast-growing internet market, said Martin Liu, president of the Chinese company. For its part, DST will be able to leverage Tencent's technical and operational expertise to strengthen its leading position in Russia, Liu adds. DST CEO Yuri Milner called Tencent's investment "support from the leader of the Chinese Internet market and one of the most successful Internet companies in the world."

Of the deals announced openly, Tencent's investment in DST could be considered the largest investment in Runet. Previously, the largest transactions were the purchase by Prof-Media holding of a 55% stake in Rambler Media Group for $250 million in 2006 and the acquisition by South African holding Naspers of a 30% stake in Mail.ru for $165 million in 2007. DST itself was valued at $3 billion.

According to Kochetkov, the most obvious option for investing the investments received is the acquisition of the Internet messenger ICQ: the owner of the software product, AOL, just put it up for sale, and DST and Tencent are contenders for purchase.

Before the deal with the Chinese, the ownership structure was as follows: More than 50% for Yuri Milner and Grigory Finger, 35% for New Media Technologies Alisher Usmanov, 5% for Renaissance Groups, the rest for Tiger Global Management and Goldman Sachs.

Naspers buys 28.7% in DST

On July 14, 2010, the South African media holding Naspers Limited and the Russian investment fund Digital Sky Technologies (DST) announced that the fund Myriad International Holdings B.V., a subsidiary of Naspers, would buy 28.7% of DST.

As reported in a Naspers press release, under the terms of this transaction, the holding will invest $388 million in cash in DST, and will also give a 39.3% stake in Mail.ru. The share of Russian shareholders of DST Ltd. after the deal with the Chinese and before the emergence of Naspers was more than 75%.

Start preparing for IPO

On July 29, it became known that DST issued an IPO mandate to three banks - Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, sources close to the company and banks said. According to them, the offering will take place in 2011, probably in the spring, on the London Stock Exchange, from 10 to 25% of DST Russia shares will be sold. It will include the Odnoklassniki social network, the Mail.ru portal and the ICQ messenger. The company is negotiating the purchase of shares from Odnoklassniki minority shareholders. ICQ and Odnoklassniki will be merged with Mail.ru or become its subsidiaries, in any case they will be managed by one management team, a source close to these companies says.

A source close to the DST companies assures that the placement can take place on the LSE main site. On the main site, the issuer must be ready to sell at least 25% of the shares and provide audited international reports for at least three years, recalls Alexey Kurasov, head of Finam's corporate finance department. Basically, Russian companies prefer an alternative platform, but, for example, AFK Sistema and Evraz Group trade on the main one.

The manager of one of the Internet companies heard that DST hopes for a valuation of $6 billion. In 2011, the DST estimate may well grow to $5-6 billion due to the growth of portfolio companies (in 2009 Odnoklassniki and Mail.ru more than doubled revenue), the synergistic effect between them and possible new acquisitions, says Kurasov.

According to "Marker.ru," DST has seven directors in total. Naspers has two seats on the company's board, plus one observer with a deliberative vote. From Tencent - one observer. As a source close to the company told Marker.ru, according to the DST share capital structure, control over it can never go from Russian shareholders to foreign ones. This is ensured, among other things, by the fact that the company has different types of shares. Recall that another leading domestic Internet company - Yandex - resolved the issue of relations with the authorities by transferring the "golden share" to Sberbank. DST could transfer an analogue of the "golden share" to a businessman whom the Russian government believes no less than Sberbank.

Rename to Mail.ru Group

On 16 September 2010, investment fund Digital Sky Technologies (DST) changed its name. Now the fund will be called the Mail.ru Group. The name change is associated "with the operational vector for the further development of the company."

Contribution of foreign assets to the capital of Mail.ru Group

On October 6, 2010 it became known that in the capital of Mail.ru Group besides 100% of Mail.ru, ICQ and "Schoolmates", minority shares of VKontakte and OE investments 2.4% of the largest social network Facebook, 5% of discount service Groupon and 1.5% of the producer of games for social networks Zynga are brought, told two sources close to participants of placement of Mail.ru Group. The value of these assets in the secondary market is approximately $1 billion, says one of Vedomosti's interlocutors^[14].

This is confirmed by the assessment of the capitalization of these companies on the floor for trading in shares of private companies Sharespost.com. Facebook is estimated at $26.28 billion, Zynga - at $4.59 billion; that is, Mail.ru Group's shares in these assets together cost about $700 million. The site does not give Groupon estimates, but a source close to this company says that at the IPO planned in the fall of 2011, shareholders are counting on Groupon's valuation of $5 billion. If so, 5% of Groupon could cost about $250 million.

Previously, it was assumed that the Mail.ru Group will receive only the ICQ Internet pager and the Russian assets of Digital Sky Technologies (DST) Yuri Milner, Grigory Finger and Alisher Usmanov. And foreign - shares in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon - will go entirely to DST Global. But in the end it turned out differently. The shares of Facebook, Zynga and Groupon, bought with the money of a consortium of investors (Usmanov, Naspers, Tencent, etc.), fell into the Mail.ru Group, sources close to the participants in the placement explain. And shares in the same companies, later bought with Usmanov's money, are in DST Global. Usmanov, according to them, is the main shareholder of DST Global. Usmanov's acquaintance says that DST Global is organized on the principle of a fund and there is no controlling shareholder in it, but there are main and junior partners. The representative of Usmanov does not comment on this.

DST Global has 7.6% of Facebook left, which could cost almost $2 billion. The size of the shares owned by Russian investors in Zynga and Groupon is not exactly known. Roughly 10% of the discount service Groupon DST bought with the Battery Ventures fund, but DST was the leading investor. The minority share of the social media game manufacturer Zynga was acquired along with the funds Institutional Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global Management, the deal amounted to $180 million, of which DST paid about half.

Shares of foreign companies were contributed to the Mail.ru Group to increase its valuation during the IPO; there is no more need - after all, operationally there is nothing to extract from them and no synergy should be expected, says Troika Dialogue analyst Anna Lepetukhina.

Mail.ru Group plans to list up to 25% of its shares on the London Stock Exchange in the fall of 2010. The organizers of the placement banks are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan. Shareholders expect to receive $5-6 billion for the company, sources familiar with the terms of the placement said earlier.

In December 2010, the monthly audience of Mail.ru Group projects reached 27.2 million unique visitors, an increase of 14% compared to June and 27% compared to December 2009.

2009

Verdi Israelyan becomes partner of Yuri Milner in DST

Since the summer of 2009, Israelyan Verdi became a partner of Yuri Milner in Digital Sky Technologies. He is engaged in the management of Russian DST assets and is responsible for the company's investment activities in Russia.

Sale of Mail.ru game developer Astrum Online Entertainment

December 1, 2009 Mail.ru became the owner of 100% Astrum Online Entertainment.

"DST has been looking for a long time where to attach its gaming assets, for example, the scenario of combining Astrum Online Entertainment and Mail.ru was considered," comments Tatyana Menkova, an analyst at Finam. - Naspers insisted, however, that the fund offset a possible dilution of the portal's stake. It seems that it was not possible to agree, and another decision was made. It can be considered a compromise. On the one hand, DST will receive money that it can invest in new projects. On the other hand, the gaming company will be tightly integrated with Mail.ru, acting as a factor in the growth of portal revenues. "

Astrum shares are partially paid for in Mail.ru shares, partly in cash. The parties did not disclose other details of the deal. It was decided that the company will operate under the brand Mail.ru. More on the deal here.

2008: Alexander Tamas manages overseas assets

• Tamas Alexander - has been managing DST's overseas assets since the summer of 2008.

Notes