Russia's Wildberries, Russ Group to develop joint digital trading platform
MOSCOW. June 19 (Interfax) - The Wildberries marketplace and Russ Group, an out-of-home advertising operator, are uniting to create an advanced digital trading platform, Wildberries said on Telegram.
"The consolidation of e-commerce and advertising market leaders will help create a new actor in the financial, media, trade and industrial sectors of the economy, as well as in the areas of Internet technologies, logistics, retail and advertising," it said, without disclosing the legal and financial parameters or the format of the merger. Wildberries' press service has provided no comment either.
In turn, the press service for the Federal Antimonopoly Service told Interfax that Wildberries and Russ Group had not applied for the regulator's approval of the deal. "If they do, the application will be processed in accordance with law," the press service said.
Wildberries' statement states that the goal of unification is "the creation of an advanced high-tech digital trading platform and the provision of seamless instruments for the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the countries of presence."
The combined infrastructure will include a digital media platform, a network of advertising structures, logistics hubs, warehouses and logistics centers. The geography of the project will cover the Russian Federation, the CIS countries, and the countries of the global South in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the CIS, India and China (more than 5.8 billion people in total).
Wildberries LLC, the main legal entity of the Wildberries marketplace, increased its revenue to 538.7 billion rubles in 2023, up 69.8% from 2022. The company's net profits amounted to 18.9 billion rubles.
Russ Group manages classic and digital advertising structures in 143 cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, and cities of the Moscow region, and places advertising in the Moscow and St. Petersburg metro, on trains and at Russian Railways stations and at 18 airports. The total reach of its advertising structures exceeds 85 million people per month.
In 2023, Russ Outdoor LLC increased its revenue by 98.3% to 27.9 billion rubles, and net profit amounted to 4.86 billion rubles.
