Looks like it’s boom time for on demand services in Russia.
Two releases, published by two leading providers in the space of only a few days, tell an interesting tale.
The first, by the video streaming service ivi.ru, claims that it is now the leading VOD player in revenue terms. Quoting iKS Consulting, it says that its share amounted to 28% in 2013, with revenues almost doubling (+ 95%) during the year to $14.1 million. At the same time, ivi.ru’s unique user base more than doubled to 30 million per month (+114%) and its video viewing also more than doubled to 200 million a month (+135%).
Again quoting research by iKS Consulting, ivi.ru also talks about the Russian market in general. The online video sector is now the largest in Europe, with some 60 million unique viewers, and the VOD sector more than doubled in revenue terms (+105%) to $50.5 million in 2013.
Significantly, the top 10 players, which of course include ivi.ru, control 97% of the market.
The second release, by Play, discusses the company’s annual results for 2013 and also refers to research published by iKS Consulting. The latter confirmed Play to be the leading provider in Russia’s paid VOD sector, with a market share of 72% and enjoying growth twice as high as the market average.
Play ended 2013 with over 500,000 customers and more than 5 million registered devices. However, what was even more important for the company was that in January this year its customers spent €1.25 million, thereby taking it over the break-even point and proving that transactional VOD can actually be a sustainable business in Russia.
Interestingly, 90% of Play’s revenues are generated through a smart TV app, available on the majority of models now sold in Russia. This, says the company, is unique for a paid VOD service, and its CEO Leonid Belyaev is quoted as saying that Play’s mission is to “reinvent the idea of the TV set and get back people who had abandoned TVs”.
Oleg Tumanov, his counterpart at ivi.ru, meanwhile talks about how the licensed VOD market in Russia has been boosted by the growing number of smart devices and new anti-piracy legislation introduced last year.
This is clearly something of a golden age for on demand services in Russia and it looks like lasting for some time to come.
