Against the background of Amazon’s locks and proposals for the introduction of a 30% tax on all purchases from overseas sites, Yandex and Sberbank, they completed a joint venture deal announced in August . According to German Gref, the purpose of the new site will be the creation of a “Russian Amazon”. The total cost of the project is 60 billion rubles, of which Yandex has already received 30 billion. The amount is very impressive: Durov received $ 300 million for Vkontakte, and Yandex paid $ 80 million for Film Search, and both deals were before the fall of the ruble. But what are the chances of the new project to overcome Avito and Aliexpress, and will it be able to oppose something to the real Amazon if it one day wants to come to Russia?
German Gref, head of Sberbank, said the deal is very important for the entire Russian market. According to its results, Sberbank and Yandex will receive equal shares in the new company, and give 10% of the shares as an option fund for the Yandex.Market team, which will implement the project. The CEO of the company will be Maxim Grishakov, the current head of Yandex.Market.
The goal is to build a “Russian Amazon” on the basis of Yandex.Market, which will have its own warehouses, so that it will be able to organize logistics and delivery more efficiently, and independently deal with processing orders for goods from partners. At the same time, Yandex.Market itself will continue to develop, and will remain just a portal for viewing reviews and comparing prices.
German GrefA few days ago, Yandex.Market has already launched a separate marketplace with the working title “ Purchases ”. Until May 21, he is in beta test, and only some large retailers have been invited to it. Service users will be able to make purchases directly at the site and put goods from different vendors in one basket. The collection and delivery of goods will be handled by Yandex itself. To put up for sale goods on the site will be able to both legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. When the service leaves the testing stage in May, Yandex will close the Market Ordering program, which worked according to the CPA model. "Market" will earn money only from the transition to the sites of stores, all other activity will be on the new site.
Prehistory
As we said in August of last year, “Yandex”, in fact, had no choice. In Russia, Avito has already overtaken the "Market" in attendance. Overseas stores began to breathe in the back, which could offer the same products significantly cheaper. In January 2017, Sberbank announced its intention to cooperate with Aliexpress. By providing them with funding and an extensive network of branches, together “to become one of the world's largest e-commerce sites.” In the annual report, Yandex called this decision one of the main threats to its business.
Maxim GrishakovIn May 2017, Maxim Grishakov became the head of Yandex.Market (which formed as a separate company), who immediately took a course on Amazon Russian, announcing plans to turn the site into a huge online store. This would reduce prices and speed up delivery. Already in the summer of 2017, Sberbank agreed to help Yandex.Market in these endeavors, and provide funding for reforming the company and opening giant warehouses in Moscow and the Moscow region. Otkritie FC analyst Alexander Vengranovich said then that this way of raising funds may indicate that Yandex is not completely sure of the correctness of its strategy:
Perhaps in this way they are trying to reduce risks, to share them with a partner. It is clear that competition from overseas e-commerce sites is growing, and Yandex.Market could not stand it. But turning the service into such a platform, building all the logistics is a complex project, the return from which is not clear.
What can we expect
Yandex.Market is one of the most popular resources of Runet, with an audience of more than 20 million people per month. But can the new platform do the same for us that Amazon did in the US, where it accounts for more than 50% of all online purchases?
Partnership with Sberbank, of course, simplifies a lot. Yandex.Market can get access to the network of its branches in cities, implement a global lending service, deploy a huge advertising campaign offline, which Avito and Wikimart have not dreamed about. Becoming the country's first online store "Yandex" will almost certainly be able to. It is more difficult to grow up to 50%, but in the future it is possible if we exclude all foreign sites from accounting. However, there is always the risk that in the long term, Amazon itself, with its uniquely low prices and wide range of goods, will want to enter the Russian market. And then with the “Market” can repeat the same story as Facebook with “Vkontakte”, Twitch with GoodGame and YouTube with RuTube.
In August last year, we have already discussed , the question can be viewed from two positions - pessimistic and optimistic. But against the background of recent decisions by the authorities about cutting the limit on overseas purchases and Medvedev's proposal to limit the purchase of American goods, there is no optimistic scenario, in fact. It would be good to believe that a large platform will reduce the prices of goods, and save us money. But obviously, the cheapness of Amazon, eBay and Aliexpress with Russian taxes, it still does not interrupt. And that means, we will add another powerful AKIT -style lobbyist, who is interested in restricting foreign online purchases of Russians in every way. Sberbank and Pochta Rossii, which help Yandex in a new venture, are well known for their penchant for monopolizing the market. And if we manage to concentrate more than 50% of all online sales on one site, what is the purpose of the whole current venture, instead of reducing prices and increasing the supply of goods, we may well see the opposite situation. Especially if the Russians manage to protect from purchases from the real "Amazon" and Aliexpress.
I would like to believe in a fair fight, but recent trends do not inspire optimism.
Meanwhile
At least, Yandex and Sberbank know who they should be like. Amazon yesterday rose sharply in price and entrenched in second place in the list of the most expensive companies, overtaking Alphabet and Microsoft. The reason - the release of the report on the results of the first quarter of 2018, in which the financial performance of Amazon exceeded expectations. On an annualized basis, the company's profit grew 2.25 times - up to $ 1.62 billion, while net sales grew by 43% (up to $ 51 billion against $ 35.7 billion). Against this background, Amazon shares rose by 7%, and its capitalization reached $ 735 billion - higher than that of the entire Russian stock market.
Against this background, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has increased by $ 12 billion (in one day!), And now stands at $ 134 billion. Bill Gates is second on the list of the richest people on the planet with $ 90.8 billion. Bezos outperforms him by more than 45%.
At the same time, Amazon continues to be the most beloved IT-company in America (unlike the very same Facebook, which the last few months have been posing as a villain). It is expected that its annual revenue this year will reach $ 200 billion (although in 2016 it was less than $ 100 billion), and in the race to a record capitalization of $ 1 trillion, it can overtake Apple.
PS While the Russian "Amazon" is trying to fly, you can buy on a real Amazon - the prices of clothes and electronics there will always be much cheaper than in Russia. And you can deliver all overseas parcels from Pochtoy.com. Register with this link and enter the GEEKTIMES code to get $ 7 to your account. Order directly from the USA - in fact, it is no more difficult than taking something on Yandex.Market.