Russian Mobile Content News
Newsletter, December 2008

Beeline's top-10 content partners for November 2008
Vimpelcom (Beeline brand) has published top-10 content providers - participants of its CPA (content provider access) program in Russia for November 2008 (based on mobile content revenues):
1. A1
2. i-Free
3. INFON
4. Playfon
5. Neoline
6. Neva Line
7. Carolina Technologies
8. Plastic Media
9. Next Media
10. Iricom

Top-10 RBT for December from IMMO
IMMO (Inform-Mobil) has published a top-10 of its ring back tone bestsellers delivered over Russian mobile operators in December 2008:
1. Save me - Morandi
2. Oda nashei lubvi - T9
3. Shine on - R.I.O.
4. Vakhteram - Bumbox
5. Beginnin - Madcon 6. Prosti, ja uletaju - Podium
7. Ride it - Jay Sean
8. If only you - Danny Feat Terese
9. Pochemu - Potap & Nastja Kamenskikh
10. You're a woman - Bad Boys Blue.

i-Free and Finam add Forex Market feature to MTS Business WAP portal
i-Free, a leading Russian content provider, and a Moscow based investment service company Finam designed a Forex Market section for the MTS Business WAP portal, providing Forex market updates. The new Forex Market section carries the latest Forex market information, including a newsreel of events directly affecting Forex exchange rates, and real-time currency quotes from the Forex currency pairs list. The section also offers subscriptions for extra features, such as text messages with currency pair quotes to subscriber's mobile phone, and SMS alerts whenever the currency pair watched shows a rate above or below the limits set by the subscriber.

WapStart promotes Allsoft.ru products
WapStart Plus1 mobile advertisement network has launched a promotion campaign for the Allsoft.ru online shop. The project aims to stimulate purchases of software for mobile phones. Allsoft.ru is an online shop project of the Softline company, one of the leading distributors of software products in Russia and the CIS. The shop mobile version offers variety of software for mobile devises: from dictionaries to anti-virus products. Purchases can be made by credit cards, online money and by premium rate SMS.

Discovery Channel's video at MTS WAP portal
MTS and Discovery Networks EMEA has launched an exclusive section of the MTS WAP portal providing video clips from the Discovery TV Channel. MTS subscribers can view the clips on their mobile terminals and download preferred video. A special encoding technology provides good video quality on any mobile phones.

Incore Media expanded RBT services for MegaFon
STK menu developed by Incore Media for MegaFon's RBT service has the following content sections: Hits, New, Recommended, Top Music and Top Jokes. Each section contains 16 melodies totalling 80 RBT pieces in constant rotation. MegaFon launched RBT service three years ago. Currently the service has over 7.5 mln users. Incore Media provides content, marketing support and service management for MegaFon's RBT.

INFON changed corporate brand to Zed
INFON, one of two largest content providers in Russia, recently announced that it is moving forward to change its B2B, B2G and corporate brand to Zed. While the D2C business will remain branded as INFON, the company's product portfolio will increase with access to global agreements, like NBA's or Lionsgate's, and enjoy all resources and intellectual property of the Zed Group. In 2007 INFON, head-quartered in St. Petersburg, was acquired by Madrid based Zed and since that time has been gradually integrated under Zed's global strategy. Kirill Shramko (former INFON's CEO and current Zed Russia's Director-General) explained: "Zed is a recognized leader in MVAS industry. We are pleased to officially announce this step forward, with the efforts to meet the demand of our partners to implement innovative and unique products for the Russian mobile content market." Zed's Russian operations will also benefit from accessing the full catalogue of Zed's in-house developed games. Collaboration throughout Zed's staff from more than 22 offices around the world will also provide synergies in technology, marketing and R&D.

MegaFon announced top-10 content partners for 3Q2008
MegaFon, the third largest cellular operator in Russia (23.2% market share, MTS - 34.3%, Vimpelcom - 25.3% by December 2008, according to the AC&M report), has published a rating of its top-10 content partners for the 3Q2008:
1. Incore Media
2. A1
3. i-Free
4. INFON
5. Shamrock Games (Next Media)
6. Telemarket
7. Plastic Media
8. Svyaznoi Zagruzka
9. Carolina Technologies
10. Wap Tak.

UFT launched Cosmopolitan magazine mobile version
United Fun Traders (UFT), a St. Petersburg based distributor of mobile content in Russia and worldwide, has partnered with the Independent Media publishing house to launch a mobile version of the Cosmopolitan magazine for Russian and CIS users. The project aims to increase customer loyalty of the magazine. The Cosmo mobile version was developed by UFT using the Future Publishing technology. The mobile magazine is a Java application offering Cosmo Announce, Cosmo Beauty, Cosmo Shopping and Cosmo Best content sections based on the online version of the magazine. The Future Publishing technology was developed by Future Mobile company.

Russia is leading market for Opera Mini
According to the "State of the Mobile Web, November 2008" report published by Opera Software, that reviews the top sites and top phones for Opera Mini mobile browser in both Europe and North America, Russia and Ukraine lead Europe, followed closely by the United Kingdom. Yandex remains the search engine of choice for Russian users of Opera Mini. Google retains its number six position, and Yahoo is back on the list at number ten after a three month absence. Wikipedia and My Opera are new to the top ten list in Russia. Page-view growth since January 2008 is 182.6%. Top 10 sites in Russia (# of unique users):
1. vkontakte.ru
2. mail.ru
3. yandex.ru
4. odnoklassniki.ru
5. rambler.ru
6. google.com
7. my.opera.com (new)
8. wapos.ru (down from 7)
9. wikipedia.org (new)
10. yahoo.com (back on the list).
Top handsets in Russia for November 2008:
1. Nokia 6300
2. Nokia N73
3. Nokia 6233
4. Sony Ericsson K750i
5. Nokia N70
6. Sony Ericsson K790i
7. Nokia 6120c
8. Sony Ericsson W810i
9. Nokia 3250
10. Nokia 5300.

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