Economic Newspaper for Everyone Doing Business (Moscow), November 15, 2003

The product that is the most in demand in the modern world is news. Those, who have information, have tomorrow. This must be the major secret of the success of the RBC group of companies whose information empire includes some ten specialized sites, press and television. "It is not information we work with. We work with people, we foresee their wishes," RBC's general director Yury ROVENSKY lets us in on the secret of the know-how. "Our ten-year background in the information business proved that a consumer does not want to receive anything excessive. This is why while creating a new product we first of all take into account the professional needs of our clients."

RBC's star started rising on the sky of Russian business 10 years ago. In 1993, the RosBusinessConsulting, an information agency disseminating economic information, was incorporated. The company started issuing news-bulletins and press reviews.

To date, RIA RosBusinessConsulting is Russia's largest business mass media source. It has 5,500 subscribers, and over 150 reporters. Its business audience is over 1.5 million people. RBC has grown into a most reliable source of financial and economic information. RBC's Internet server provides all information necessary for a businessperson, i.e. news lines, analytical materials, corporate and industry research, up-to-date data from trading platforms, and specialized financial instruments.

RBC is this popular due to the ability of its management to promptly react to any situation. When the August 1998 crisis broke out, RIA RosBusinessConsulting provided free access to a part of its information. About 100,000 people a week started visiting the site. At that time this figure was huge. People got used to beginning their day with RBC news.

Interest in financial information turned out to be enormous on the Russian Internet. And one could not help taking advantage of this.

Diversification of information

For RBC, the Internet has never been the goal. After creating one of the most frequently visited sites, one had to decide how to use this advantage. As RBC's audience was extremely affluent, the rbc.ru site turned into one of the most attractive advertising ground in Runet.

Gradually new resources were added to the "mother" site rbc.ru. RBC launched new Internet projects. To enhance its positions the company bought leaders in specific market sectors rather often. For example the Hotbox mail server is one of the purchased resources.

However, RBC created the majority of its sites. For instance, the sports section sports. rbc.ru was created for the Olympic Games in Sydney. One of the most popular RBC projects is the YTRO.ru electronic newspaper. This is an information and analytical periodical that combines the best features of "paper" journalism and all the advantages provided by the Internet. Today, among RBC's information resources are specialized Internet periodicals Cnews (high technologies and electronic business in Russia and abroad), AutoNews (information about automobiles, services in the automotive industry, and news of the vehicle market), Tourist, and the 5 Ballov educational gateway. Additionally, RBC issues the RBC daily analytical Internet newspaper that analyses the situation in various industries of the Russian economy and the country's major companies.

The audience of all RBC's resources exceeds 4 million people. What can one attribute this popularity to? The epoch of portals and projects that cover heterogeneous information has gone. Excessive information depresses a user who really appreciates a supply of structured information.

From site construction to development of software solutions

Having faced the necessity to support its sites, RBC has gotten involved in IT development and created a new division called RBC SOFT. This company develops software products and corporate management systems that allow working with finance, production, and distribution, to manage human resources, and to create electronic businesses. RBC SOFT provides hosting, trains specialists, consults, and conducts marketing research.

Mastering the new field has step by step become profitable. RBC's clients in the IT sector are banks, investment and insurance companies, and government bodies. Among them are the Atomic, Education, Culture, and Labor Ministries, the GUM trading house, the Bolshoi Theater, and the Moscow Kremlin.

"When we created the RBC SOFT company and started the IT business, this was a non-core business for us at first," Yury Rovensky recalls. "But time has laid a new emphasis so that today this line has become extremely promising. Last year, 47 percent of the company's consolidated revenues were from RBC SOFT. This means that this non-core business has been growing so rapidly that it has created a full-fledged independent field."

RBC TV: we know the economy inside out

This year the RBC group of companies confirmed its reputation as a pioneer. In September, the RBC TV business channel was launched. The first viewers of the channel were the subscribers of cable and satellite providers - satellite channels (NTV+ and Kosmos-TV) and cable networks (Comcor-TV and Divo-TV). To date, the audience is growing due to regional broadcasters. RBC TV is received in Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Perm, and Tyumen on local cable and decimeter channels. Negotiations on broadcasting in Murmansk, Ufa, and Surgut are in their final stage.

RBC's board of directors decided to create business television in late spring last year. By that time RBC had unique information content, i.e. a considerable amount of information on finance, economy, and politics where it is connected with the economy. "We realized that for preserving these competitive advantages RBC enjoyed, it was necessary to make a qualitative step forward," RBC's general director Yury Rovensky says. "The experience we have accumulated and what we saw abroad prompted us that the greatest and the most interesting project we could implement was television. We have the advantages and we could not keep from using them!"

In April 2002, RBC. conducted an IPO on two Russian Exchanges, MICEX and the RTS. The resources it attracted were invested in Russia's first business television. In total, RBC TV. received some $23m in investments, including $18m of its own resources. By the end of 2004, the channel is expected to break even. Its founders are going to achieve this by attracting advertisers.

Like other RBC. projects, business television is another niche and specialized information product. The majority of time in its programming is devoted to business news, analytical business programs, and up-to-date information from trading platforms. The uniqueness of the Russian business channel is that it combines two broadcasting concepts, news and analysis. It offers all-purpose content. Its viewers are equally informed on various fields of the economy. Economic trends, industry reviews, company activities, market analysis, the situation in foreign economies, the state of the services industry, interviews with top business people - one channel covers the entire Russian economy from A to Z.

The audience of the business channel is not homogeneous but according to sociologists it is rather large. It is not only employees of banks, investment companies, funds, exchanges, audit and consulting companies for whom business is a professional field that watch RBC TV.. The channel's viewers are also politicians and government officials, top and middle managers, representatives of federal and regional authorities, economy students, and all those who would like to handle their savings right. The Russian economy is currently growing. The volume of private savings is growing, too. So is the number of those who wish to preserve and increase them. In our country, RBC TV.'s potential audience is some 12 million people, researchers say.

The best of the best

The company sees its mission in contributing to Russia's integration with the world information and economic community. Not only introduces RBC. high technologies, it also holds special events aimed at restoring the health of Russian businesses.

RBC. is the organizer of the annual national business award "The Company of the Year". On October 29, it was held for the fifth time. This event facilitates the development of business activity in the country, and attracts the attention of the world business community to the best companies helping them get foreign investments.

The organizers of the action and the members of the independent expert council award the companies that create a new image of Russian business. No matter whether they are giants of the fuel and energy industry or small companies involved in rendering private services.

The success of companies is assessed using such criteria as management quality, the quality of products or services, financial transparency, market activity, innovativeness, professionalism, and potential investment attractiveness.

Over the 10 years of operations on the Russian market, RBC. has acquired its own corporate style, which is to set complicated tasks and to complete them positioning itself on the market as a leader and pioneer.

Every year, the company's profits double. RBC. has been the only Russian company included in Deloitte&Touche Tohmatsu 2002 European Technology Fast 500, Europe's rating of the fastest growing companies involved in advanced technologies.

"Our story does not end with launching RBC TV. We still have goals to achieve," Yury Rovensky says. "We shall preserve our growth rate. We employ 1,200 people; we need to improve corporate governance culture. We have a great potential. The company will be striving at expansion on the markets."