"Тhe Moscow Times", October 17, 2000

By Rick Burnes
Staff Writer

RosBusinessConsulting, one of the nation's leading business information services, and owner of one of the most popular sites on the Russian Internet, said Tuesday that it will invest at least $2 million over the next year to broaden its web presence.

With its new 13-site network called RosBusiness Internet Holding, RBC is hoping to strengthen its position as a portal, financial information service and web-development consultant, said Alexei Kuzovkin, RBC's vice president for information and technology.

With all its sites combined, RBC plans to attract over 1.5 million unique users a month, Kuzovkin said f well over a third of the total 3.8 million people predicted to be using the Russian Internet by the end of the year.

RBC's move comes after a year of rapid consolidation in the industry.

Over the summer, Internet service provider Golden Telecom became a RuNet heavyweight with its $8.28 million purchase of the IT Infoart Starts portal project and $25 million purchase of the Aport search engine and its parent company.

Last spring, the Rambler Group, owner of the nation's leading search engine, expanded its reach with the purchase of a controlling stake in the news site Lenta.ru.

And in April, RuNet Holdings, owner of the online retailer Ozone.ru, became a serious player when it paid $5.28 million for a 36 percent stake in the search engine Yandex.ru

RBC was started in 1992, went online in 1995, and has traditionally focused on financial information services. The network introduced Tuesday moves the company toward the broad-based Internet conglomerates like Rambler, Golden Telecom and RuNet Holdings.

In addition to its original financial information site Rbc.ru, RBC has added 12 sites targeted at more specific audiences.

These include high-tech news site Cnews.ru; banner advertising network Lbn.ru; sports dedicated Sport.rbc.ru; employment service Job.rbc.ru; Krovatka.ru, a chat site; and Informer.ru, a web content provider.