Here are some summary points, but I’d recommend you read Anna’s post for the details.

• The size of Russian mobile internet audience is 34,5 million.
• In 2012, the share of Apple mobile devices in total Internet traffic went up to 34% from 23%, Nokia share went down to 23% from 40% and Samsung share increased to 14% from 5%.
• The average visit time spent on the mobile site is about 5 minutes. Indicators of mobile activity: 3.74 clicks per visit; and users leave the website after viewing 1 page with a probability of 53.59%.
• In 2012, the share of Apple mobile devices in total Internet traffic went up to 34% from 23%, Nokia share went down to 23% from 40% and Samsung share increased to 14% from 5%.
• MTS, Megafon and Beeline are the most popular mobile providers.
• iOS is an operating system used by most mobile devices.
• Almost all mobile browsers currently support cookies, allowing for campaign targeting techniques.
• The number of mobile devices able to run HTML5 multimedia went up two times from the previous year. Over 50% of mobile devices can correctly reproduce today’s interactive advertising format Rich-Media.
• The highest ROI from mobile advertising on iOS devices.

The Quinture blog blames this low distribution on the high price.

The official retail price of iPhone 5 in Russia (unlocked and contract-free) starts from 28,900 Roubles ($941) for 16GB model, 34,900 Roubles ($1,136) for 32GB model and 39,900 Roubles ($1,300) for 64GB model. In Russia, iPhone 5 16GB costs 45% higher than in the U.S., iPhone 5 32GB – 52% higher and iPhone 5 64GB – 53% higher than in the U.S.

Local Russian laws have banned mobile operators from subsidizing the device’s price by linking it to a subscription package. Likely to be one of the main reasons Russia’s largest operator, MTS, has refused to offer the iPhone 5. OAO MegaFon (MFON), Russia’s second-largest mobile-phone operator, hasn’t been selling Apple devices since 2010, according to the company’s press office. The contract between Apple and VimpelCom Ltd., (VIP) Russia’s No. 3 operator, expires in March.

Still, Russia has a large appitite for Apple gadgets. Telecomdaily estimates 100,000 iPhone 5 have been brought into the country since their launch in U.S. and Western Europe. The gadget was fetching up to $3700 on the grey market. A study by Yandex showed iPad users accounted for about 1% of all internet users in Russia.

Numbers of Users

According this these data sources, by the end of January 2012:

• iPad visits made up at least one million of all online visitors to websites in the Russian internet
• 700,000 of these visits were made from Russian IPs, equating to 1% of all Russian Internet users
• iPad users accounted for about 1% of all internet users in Russia.
• More than 50% of all Russian iPad users were from Moscow and the Moscow regions.
• iPad ownership was growing fastest in the regions. In 2011 the number of iPad visitors to websites grew 5x, while iPad visits from other Russian regions grew 7x.

The iPad was officially released in Russia in November 2010. However several tens of thousands of iPads were already in use in the country [brought in from abroad by tourists, friends or bought through unofficial vendors]. In early 2011, their number exceeded 100,000 and this increased six times during the year. Over the same period, the number of both mobile phone users and PC users also went up, but the progress was significantly slower than the growth in the number of iPad users. The number of mobile phone users increased 2.5 times, while the number of PC users grew only 1.4 times.

Search Behaviour

• Yandex found that iPad users browsed as many web pages as PC users, and went online as often.
• iPad users make as many search queries as, and even slightly more than, PC users, and significantly more than mobile phone users.
• iPad owners mostly searched in the evenings and during the weekends.
• On a weekday, they make 57% of their search queries after 7pm. On Saturdays and Sundays, the number of search queries made from the iPad increases 20% compared with a weekday.
• Compared with the average Yandex user, iPad owners make significantly more search queries about topics related to travel and home.
• They are also more likely to look for products and services online.
• When it comes to entertainment content, mobile app search or social networking, iPad users typically revert to specialised apps.

The graph above gives a useful insight into the search demand on Yandex across the day, showing that iPad search volume typically peaks between 10pm-midnight on a weekday. In a similar way to the UK market, iPad users are becoming a significant group for search marketers to consider. Ignoring the user experience for these users is no longer an option.

Now all businesses who want to launch applications on Vkontakte for promotional purposes will need to sign a contract with the company. They will also need to pay a daily fee, the level depending on whether they include external links in their application or not.

The fee is 0.035r (without external links) or 0.070r (with external links) per visitor. A minimum fee will be 3500r or $118 (without external links) and 7000r or $236 (with external links) per day. All prices include VAT. There will be a minimum placement period of 14 days and users will be told they are using a commercial application.

It’s a bold move from Vkontakte who must assume this fee will be small-change to brands looking to promote themselves on the platform. Even a minimum charge of 49’000r ($1656) or 100’000r ($3380) will hit small campaign budgets hard.

In this author’s opinion, this was not a smart more by Vkontakte. While it may bring in money in the short-term, it will push commercial usage to Facebook where this activity is free. They may have just chased off many high-quality content producers. Vkontakte just provides a platform, in the long-term the content determines the audience engagement.

Example 1: Search for term “c++ adjacent_find

Example 2: Search for css term “css float”

It’s a smart feature and certainly returns more useful in-search information than the same search on Google.

This feature should be popular among tech-savvy users, a key group of influencers. It’s already active on Yandex.com, their international portal.

Like Google, Yandex’s business model is based principally on contextual advertising. In 2010, contextual ads accounted for 88% of the company’s revenues. Revenues from contextual advertising grew 45% year-over-year. According to the Russian Association of Communication Agencies (RACA), during the first nine months of 2010, the overall Russian ad market increased by 14%, while the online advertising market showed a 37% growth. In 2010, the number of advertisers on Yandex increased by over 40% year-over-year and totaled more than 180,000.

“The highlight of 2010, as we see it, is that by constantly improving our product quality we managed to increase our share in the search market,” says Arkady Volozh, CEO. “The considerable revenue increase we report this year reflects two important trends — a post-crisis revival of the small and medium-sized businesses and a shift in advertising expenditures from other channels towards online advertising”.

Despite increased competition from Google, who holds 23% market share, Yandex has increased their control by 5.2% to 64.1%. With their Ukrainian market share going up 6.2 pp (to 27%) and its market share in Kazakhstan increasing 4.6 pp (to 24.4%). According to comScore, from November 2009 to November 2010, Yandex’s monthly audience has grown by 64%, peaking at over 54 million in November 2010.

Yandex has weathered the current economic climate well. Unlike many Russian companies they have not downsized but did maintain a hiring freeze for 2010. Opening their doors now will place them in a good position to pick up talent from companies still struggling to maintain or raise salaries. As recruitment is a key factor in Runet, given the relatively shallow talent pool, this will give them a key advantage going into 2011.

The latest revival of the law began this month, with 3 companies having action taken against them, for using English words in their advertising material. Apparently this is only the start. According to Deputy Head of the Moscow Anti-Monopoly Service, Alexander Tarkhov, interest will not subside and if anything, they will pursue lawbreakers with renewed vigor.

He only attributes the lack of action on the 2006 law to date, to the “small” size of his department and resources.

Foreign words are permitted as long as they are accompanied by a translation. But if they are part of a registered brand name, trademark or service mark, or the name of a television or radio show, they do not have to be translated. Companies use this clause as a loophole by registering slogans as trademarks.

Advertisers maintain that often when a translation is included, it is either done in such a tiny font that it is meaningless or a bigger one that destroys the creative concept and aesthetics. Puns are often lost in translation as well.

The law stems from the fear that foreign words may confuse or mislead consumers, a point hotly contested by advertising specialists. However it is true that some Russian companies use foreign words to add an aura of prestige to a product and lead people to believe it is imported. Foreign-made goods are still valued and trusted over locally produced items.

The ruling on the three companies targeted over this law is expected within the next few days, so expect another update soon.

** deluxe shopping by Gregor Fischer one of the artists who release their work under a Creative Commons license at Flickr – thank you!

The article was packed with facts on the cigar industry in Russia – summarised below for your convenience:

• 600’000 cigar smokers in Russia (according to magazine “Smoke”).
• Typical Russian cigar smoker is male, 30-65, smokes once a day and owns a humidor.
• Habanos controls 70% of the Russian market for cigars
• Russia is second fastest growing market for Habanos after China
• Habanos has built up a network of 260 retailers throughout the country, with a focus on Moscow and St. Petersburg.
• Trend is for shorter, fatter cigars so aficionados can get same enjoyment in shorter time.
• Anti-smoking trends have not affected industry sales to date
• Average Cuban Robusto can cost 240 rubles ($8)
• Newly introduced Cohiba Behike cost 2,100 rubles ($70) each
• Russia has one domestic cigar producer, “Pogar Tabacco Factory” in Bryansk, it produced 1.5m cigars last year.
• These domestic cigars mostly retail in Russia for between 100-120 roubles ($3-$4) each.

** ulybug and a larger cigar by ulybug one of the artists who release their work under a Creative Commons license at Flickr – thank you!

The .РФ (RF) domain extension is the first of a new generation of completely Internationalised Domain Name (IDN). Although some Registries have allowed foreign character registrations (IDN) of the domain term, the domain extensions (COM/NET etc) were only available in Latin characters.

This marks an important step for the Runet. Besides the obvious issues of language comprehension, users will no longer need to change their keyboard layout while typing a .РФ (RF) domain URL into their browser or search bar.

Although it should be noted here that Google has done a great job at dealing with Russian-queries in English (see this search for “дом” (house) which correctly appears when you type “ljv” in the English keyboard layout).

The .РФ (RF) domain launch has not been without controversy. ICANN had pushed hard for the Russian Registry to relinquish the old .SU (Soviet Union) domain name. They “urged the current .SU operators to make it clear to the .SU registrants the issues surrounding the domain, as well as to freeze new registrations until its future is clear.”

Their delegation was promptly sent to Moscow and returned with assurances of compliance and “understanding” which they made public. These were strangely at odds with the public statements from the Russian Registry, in the Russian press. Shortly after the Registry lowered the SU price and introduced an IDN version.

This trail of events led me to believe that the .РФ (RF) and honor of the first global IDN might be a peace offering to get closure on the SU saga. In any case, Russia is the only country to be represented by three domain name extensions!

If you’d like to pick up an .РФ (RF) domain name then I can recommend GlobusDomains. As way of disclosure, I am connected to the company but they do a great job on Russian registrations.

All you need to do is call in the font via a stylesheet request in your header. You can then specify that font throughout your other stylesheets or inline within the HTML. The implimentation methods are described in detail here.

Well I visited there this week and discovered that they now host a series of Cyrillic fonts. Definitely one to bookmark if you create Russian sites and content. If you need some help using these fonts, then leave a message in the comments below.

Update: See the comment by Sjoerd (Studiodinsdag.com) below – and add &subset=cyrillic to make this work.