and joins national online mass media

Russia's leading online information agency RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) has announced the launch of the RBC Ukraine information agency in Ukraine. The latter expects to be among the top three online mass media in Ukraine by the end of 2006 and pay back within 1.5-2 years due to advertising revenues. However, experts believe there is no way the company can count on more than 15-20% of the market, which is now totaling $4m, in 2-3 years. OAO RBC Information Systems is Russia's major online information agency accounting for over 50% of the Internet advertising market. The daily audience of its online resources, which include rbc.ru, RBC Daily, Quote.ru, Autonews.ru, Turist.ru, Utro.ru, Cnews.ru, Pochta.ru and Anekdot.ru is 9 million users. In 2005, RBC's turnover topped $100m. The controlling stake in the company belongs to its founders German Kaplun, Alexander Morgulchik and Dmitry Belik, who hold 18.5% each. The remaining 44.5% are controlled by other individuals and legal entities.

RBC Ukraine told Kommersant that it will feature economic, financial and political news from Ukraine as well as cover world's main events. "RBC Ukraine's news is available for free on the rbc.ua website. In addition, we will launch an electronic newspaper: Utro-Ukraina (Morning Ukraine)," General Director of RBC Ukraine Iosif Pintus reported. "Advertising revenue will be the main source of income for our company." According to Pintus, RBC Ukraine will come up with more online projects this year; however, there are no plans to launch a television channel similar to RBC TV yet, due to its high cost.

"The controlling stake in RBC Ukraine belongs to the Russia-based OAO RBC Information Systems," General Director of RBC Artyom Inutin said. "However, according to our contract with Ukrainian partners, I cannot tell you the names and stakes of other shareholders." Inutin reported that the company had about 60 employees at the moment, and expected to have 100 by the end of the year. He refused to specify the amount of investment in the Ukrainian project, and only said that the project was expected to pay back within 1.5-2 years. "We expect to be among the top three online editions in Ukraine by the end of 2006," Inutin added.

A survey conducted by TNS-Ukraine reports that Ukraine has 2.5m Internet users. According to All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition, Ukraine's Internet advertising market reached $2.5m in 2005 and is expected to add 60% this year. The most popular web resources in the country are Ukrainskaya Pravda (Ukraine's Truth), ForUm and Korrespondent.net.

Experts say RBC underestimates competition among Ukraine's news web sites. "They may count on being the 7th or the 5th by the end of the year," Maxim Khomutin, Director of Sputnikmedia.net Internet holding, reported. "But their web sites specializing in business news and analytics may be popular, since this segment is not occupied yet. If their projects stay successful and taking into consideration their brand recognition they may count on 15-20% of Ukraine's Internet advertising market in 2-3 years." "Competition among news portals is much greater in Ukraine," Sergei Petrenko, Director of Yandex Ukraina, agreed with Khomutin. "We assume that both the volume of the Internet advertising market and the Internet audience will be doubling in the next 2-3 years. So, the appearance of a major Russian player on the Ukrainian market is likely to promote its further growth, rather than reshape it."