Ecosystem competitors: who stepped forward
Some of the largest Russian ecosystems after last year reduced the number of advanced and purchased services. So, Yandex sold Yandex Health, and VK refused the development of “Agent Mail.ru” and ICQ. Sberbank and T-Bank, on the contrary, have more services. In general, it was the banks that most actively developed their ecosystems, and in just a year, operators had 31 products. Market participants note that companies began to optimize service areas that did not justify investment.
“Kommersant” got acquainted with the study of the analytical company SPEKTR about the state of the largest Russian digital ecosystems (“Sber”, “Yandex”, VK, MTS, T-Bank) in 2024. According to analysts, the number of advanced and purchased services (horizontal development) for the period decreased by a year by 21%, to 31 projects, the number of launches – by 14%.
MTS closed the most ecosystem services for the year – five: the company refused to further develop the car segment, smart house (see “Kommersant” dated December 20, 2024) and video hosting nuum (See “Kommersant” from March 20).
Sber and T-Bank, on the contrary, have increased the pace of horizontal development of ecosystems, follows from SPEKTR data. So, the number of new and neglected services has grown from Five from five in 2023 to seven in 2024. For example, the Bank’s ownership went on the educational online schools “Netology” and “Foxford” (See “Kommersant” dated October 17, 2024). At T-Bank-from three in 2023 to five last year.
In general, market leaders began to optimize service areas that showed insufficient financial results or “did not occupy a sufficient market share of competitors,” say in Spektr.
For example, Yandex came out of the Yandex Health non -core asset, selling it specializing in Genotek’s genetic studies (see Kommersant on September 16, 2024). VK refused to develop several services in the communications segment – “Mail.ru Agent” and ICQ. The T-Bank actually left the vertical of real estate after the closure of the joint project with CIAN, they say in SPEKTR.
As a year earlier, ecosystem operators continued to strengthen the entertainment vertical, analysts say. By the degree of presence in different segments – video, music, games, offline – VK and MTS remain the main competitors.
In the second direction – finances – 29 new services were launched for the period, as a result, each operator already has a bank or electronic wallet. On average, the ecosystem accounts for four to six financial services, the study says. “In third place – purchases and delivery (20 new services), the most powerful ecosystems in this area are Yandex, Avito, Ozon, X5,” said Spektr.
MTS reduces investments and suspenses the development of directions, the profitability and potential of which the group does not meet, the company representative says. The growth of users of the ecosystem subscription « MTS Premium » based on the results of the fourth quarter last year amounted to 47%. The number of ecosystem customers of the company over the past year increased by 2.4 million, reaching 17.5 million. “At the same time, the outflow of ecosystem customers is three times lower, and customers using three or more products are ten times lower,” the MTS representative assured. In VK, Yandex refused to comment. In the « SBER » and T-Bank did not answer « Kommersant ».
The reduction in the number of services is most likely due to the fact that companies that develop business at once in several areas have already determined the directions and tricks of development in the coming years, have found partners or acquired other players, says Kommersant’s interlocutor on a media market: “Further, ecosystem companies can bet on the B2B segment, where each ecosystem has its own advantages.”
