In the red
In the context of international sanctions, the decision to partially suspend its activities for
- Microsoft, the giant, has suspended the sale of goods andservices, and this is the most popular operating system for PCs, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other popular services, the share of which in Russia is much higher than software from other manufacturers.
- Oracle, a manufacturer of software for database management and analytics, announced on its social networks the suspension of all operations in Russia.
- Cisco - This network solutions provider hadapproximately 50% of the network infrastructure market. The company stopped work in Russia and Belarus. Webex, a Cisco-owned web and video conferencing service, has also stopped working.
- IBM, the largest software supplier, announced a temporary shutdown of business in Russia at the beginning of March 2022.
- Adobe is a company that needs no introduction.as it is a developer and supplier of Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator and Lightroom programs. The company stopped selling its products and services in Russia, and also closed access to services for state-owned Russian media.
- Apple has stopped exports and suspended a number of services.
- Nokia, the world's leading manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, announced its withdrawal from the Russian market, but at the same time emphasized the importance of ensuring support for existing networks.
Also about withdrawal from the market or suspensionactivities reported by Acronis, Arbor (Netscout), Atlassian (Jira), Autodesk, Avast, AWS, Canonical, Coursera, Citrix, Docker, ESET, Figma, Fiverr, Globalstar, GoDaddy, Google Cloud, Grammarly, IBM, Javarush, JetBrains, Juniper , Intel, MATLAB, Mikrotik, Miro, MongoDB, NortonLifeLock, NVIDIA, Pearson VUE, Qt, Red Hat, SUSE, TeamViewer, Udemy, Unity, Upwork, VMWare, Xsolla, Zabbix and others.
For some companies, a crisis is the time to scale backbusiness, and for others - a period of searching for new opportunities. In these conditions, Russian IT companies can receive an impetus for development and significant support that the state is ready to provide.
Domestic analogues
When creating Russian analogues of software and equipment, a number of difficulties may arise. Ban on supplies of foreign semiconductorsbrings the industry to a standstill. They have no Russian analogues and are not yet in sight (it takes several years to create the corresponding industry). There are domestic chip manufacturers, for example, the Mikron plant, but it cannot work without foreign supplies. It remains to look for alternative foreign partners. Today, the world leader in semiconductor production is Taiwan (market share is more than 60%), and ideally you need to take advantage of not only its supplies, but also the experience of creating an advanced industry.
Regarding Russian software, today there isrecommendations of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. The corresponding document provides a list of companies prohibited in the Russian Federation, as well as domestic analogues with which they can be replaced. A total of 15 categories are presented, which include: social networks and instant messengers, programs for organizing video conferencing and communications, anti-virus programs, document editors, electronic mail services, web browsers, educational resources and others. The transnational company Yandex is mentioned the most times.
Which Russian startups show promise and succeed in the IT sector?
Among Russian IT companies, there are several players that are currently actively developing. Here are a few of them:
- "Algorithm". In 2016, it appeared on the domestic market"Algorithmics" is a school of programming and mathematics for children and adults. A small startup founded by an ex-McKinsey consultant expanded and became international in a few years. The company now operates in more than 200 cities around the world - from New York to Moscow and offers classes in video blogging, graphic design, visual programming and much more.
- Winstrike.In 2017, marketer Yaroslav Komkov becameauthor of the Winstrike project, an esports marketing agency. It is worth saying that at the time when the company was just beginning to take its first steps, e-sports was not so popular in Russia and was just beginning to gain momentum, but the startup managed not only to enter the Russian market, becoming a successful player, but also to popularize this type of competition . Now the agency is actively involved in the largest e-sports projects in Russia, acting as an organizer of tournaments.
- Owlcat Games.This is a studio computer game development, which wasfounded in 2016. Experienced programmers who had previously participated in the development of such products as “Allods” and “Heroes” took part in the development of the project. In 2018, the company was able to release a successful game that became a hit, Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Currently it has over 600,000 active users and their number is only growing.
- one step.The dating service allows you to start a dialogue withpeople within a radius of 100 meters from each other. First, you can look at the person’s profile in the application on your phone, and then decide whether it’s worth meeting him in person here and now. The steps are very simple: go to the “Nearby” screen, find a profile that interests you, send a welcome emoji, and after replying, start chatting. All basic functions are available to users free of charge, and monetization occurs through paid subscriptions to advanced functionality and built-in advertising. The co-owner of the Merlion company, entrepreneur Alexey Abramov, invested in the startup. Thus, an amount of $570 thousand was invested in the project. In October 2021, the service, according to experts, amounted to $2.85 million.
- Drimsim.In 2011, an entrepreneur from NovosibirskSergei Redkov came up with the idea to create a universal SIM card. For help in implementing the project, he turned to various large companies, including one of the world's largest operators, Vodafone, but was unable to find an investor. Two years later, the entrepreneur began collaborating with a Swiss company, which helped bring his plans to life. As a result, the startup gained about 200,000 subscribers from more than 200 countries. Later, Vodafone joined as a partner and such giants as Telefonica and T-Mobile. The total investment amounted to approximately 2,500,000 euros. By 2021, the company has acquired 400 mobile operators from all over the world.
- Real Speaker.An indispensable assistant for writers, students andeveryone who often has to do transcription. The program is used to translate speech into text. The project was founded in 2013 by Viktor Osetrov. Since then, the program has been updated and supplemented with new functions and languages. Today, among the main advantages: printing text from dictation, good speech recognition, voice commands.
State support measures
For startupsRussia provides several types of support:
- Financial. Involves investments, lending on favorable terms, subsidies, grants.
- Informational. Coverage of startups at the federal and regional levels.
- Property. Provides for the use of state property and materials, resources that the state can give to a startup for use.
- Educational. Providing training sessions and consultations for entrepreneurs.
All measures of government assistance and supportare regulated in a special document - the Federal Law “On the Development of Small and Medium Businesses”, which is aimed at supporting business at all stages of its development. In order for the state to provide assistance to a startup, it is necessary to meet certain criteria, which are prescribed in Article 14 of Federal Law No. 209, which sets out the conditions and principles for providing state assistance1. It is also important that the company is a small or medium-sized enterprise with information entered into the Unified Register of SMEs.
To apply for government assistance you need:
- Formalize the idea. This can be a business plan in the form of a technical specification, which contains a description of the product and financial statements, or a business plan, which spells out all the details of the project.
- Choose a fund or company that can contribute to the project and estimate the amount of support.
- Submit an application on the official website of the State Service.
- Defend the project publicly in front of experts from government organizations.
Don’t forget about special support measures,which the state began to provide to IT companies. In particular, those who paid income tax at the rate of 3% are completely exempt from it until 2024. Companies accredited by the Ministry of Digital Development can take advantage of a three-year moratorium on scheduled inspections, and the Federal Tax Service of Russia has suspended tax inspections of the IT industry until March 2025. Company specialists can receive a deferment from military service.
Future plans
Experts agree that sanctions and withdrawalforeign companies will spur the development of the Russian IT industry. The demand for Russian software products has increased several times, and this trend will continue. In recent years, the share of domestic software on the market has not exceeded 25%, so development should be very intensive. It is already clear that there are some Russian analogues of foreign products, and they work, but a significant number of programs and services have yet to be replaced by domestic developments. This certainly takes time. In 2021, when the most pressing problems were the pandemic and lockdown, the Russian IT market grew by 17%. Now the pace of development should become even greater. So far, even industry experts are hesitant to give accurate forecasts of when Russian companies will replace the departed foreign giants.
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