Moscow calling DLD

It has been two years since I last went to Moscow. This week, I have been there again for two days. We visited Burda Russia and organized a DLD Lunch for Moscow's internet scene. Late summer weather in Moscow. On Tuesday night, Collection Garage opened, the hot spot of the European art community as I was told. Generally great locations, lifestyle, you feel that the city is booming. Nevertheless, people here also talk about the crisis now, about the war as well as the financial market crash. Everything is connected. I hosted our DLD Lunch together with Christiane zu Salm at the Kalina Bar, supported by our Russian colleagues (a day after the Palo Alto Lunch with Steffi and Yossi Vardi).

Among the guests: Edward Shenderovich of SUP, a venture capitalist who has left Silicon Valley and relocated to Moscow to expand LiveJournal and some other sites; Michail Raibman, who researches the Russian media and advertising market for TNS Gallup Media; Oleg Ryazhenov, who has successfully launched TimeOut in Moscow and is busy setting up a city portal; as well as Sergey Klychenkov and Nikolay Botashov, who are developing MSN Russia.

We talked a lot about the Russian online market, its status and potential, and the key players. An interesting fact: there are few start-ups; the market is mainly developed by larger groups. Among the investors: Google and MSN. Google made an acquisition and MSN is establishing the portals business. Broadband penetration is skyrocketing; big apartment complexes provide WIFI in metropolitan areas. 33 million internet users, 150 million mobile sets. I was told that about half a million iPhones have been sold so far and two networks have recently signed deals with Apple. E-commerce is largely irrelevant. People don't trust non-cash payment, we are told. This explains why Ebay and similar business concepts are not as important here than elsewhere.

Social networks, search, LiveJournal, video content as well as local content are on the roll. As far as advertising is concerned, Russia is a TV market, with TV accounting for over 60 percent of all advertising spending. The small lunch format allowed for a lively, in-depth discussion with our guests. We are delighted to have met interesting new friends for DLD in Russia. After fighting our way through the city's usual traffic jam, an Aeroflot plane brought us back to Munich.