23 Dec 2016 07:00
Product collaboration between Megafon and Mail.Ru Group
23rd December 2016. Following the statement of 16th November Mail.Ru Group (LSE: MAIL, hereinafter referred as "the Company" or "the Group") today confirms that it has agreed terms for collaboration in the area of joint development of new products and services aimed at mobile subscribers and Internet users in the company's home market with PJSC MegaFon (LSE: MFON).
The co-operation will focus on 2 areas:
1) Mobile offering for VK users: VK will make available its brand to MegaFon for the creation of a new mobile offering. The new service, VK Mobile, will use the MegaFon/Scartel network and infrastructure. This will expand VK mobile ecosystem and brand recognition adding extra value to the VK user experience.
2) Co-operation on data analytics: The companies will cooperate in data analytics for better segmentation of their users. The agreement is beneficial for the purposes of each Party's core business i.e. for Mail.Ru/VK ad targeting technologies and for MegaFon for its telecom services' upsale.
The agreements have been approved by all non-interested directors of Mail.Ru Group and the services will start to be rolled out in H1 2017. Both areas of co-operation are on an arms length basis and fully commercial terms. Revenues will be shared according to an agreed commercial formula.
Commenting on the agreement, Boris Dobrodeev, CEO (Russia) of Mail.Ru Group, said:
"We are very pleased to have concluded the commercial collaboration agreement with MegaFon. There are clearly areas of mutual benefit for users and for both companies in working together"
For Further Information Please Contact:
Investors
Matthew Hammond
Phone: +971 505 56 1315
E-mail: hammond@corp.mail.ru
Press
Madina Tayupova
Phone: +7 926 510 50 21
E-mail: m.tayupova@corp.mail.ru
About Mail.Ru Group
Mail.Ru Group (LSE:MAIL, listed since November 5, 2010) is a leading company in the Russian-speaking Internet markets (Russia is Europe's largest Internet market measured by the number of users, comScore). Mail.Ru Group's sites reach approximately 93% of Russian Internet users on a monthly basis (comScore, June 2016).
In line with the 'communitainment' (communication plus entertainment) strategy, the Company is building an integrated communications and entertainment platform. The Company owns Russia's leading email service and one of Russia's largest internet portal, Mail.Ru (TNS, all Russia, age 12-64, June 2016). The Company operates the three largest Russian language social networks, Vkontakte (VK), Odnoklassniki (OK) and Moi Mir (My World), and Russia's largest online games business (including such gaming titles as Warface, Armored Warfare, Skyforge and Perfect World). The Company also includes a leading OpenStreetMap-based offline mobile maps and navigation service MAPS.ME, two instant messaging (IM) services, Mail.Ru Agent and ICQ, which are popular in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and other products.
The company owns 100% of mobile games developer Pixonic, and 100% of Delivery Club, the number one food delivery company in Russia. Mail.Ru Group also holds an equity stake in a number of small venture capital investments in various Internet companies in Russia, Ukraine and Israel.