Holivar. History of Runet. Part 4. Mail.ru: games, social networks, Durov
Holivar. History of Runet. Part 1. Start: California hippies, Spout and the dashing 90s
Holivar. History of Runet. Part 2. Counterculture: populi, marijuana and the Kremlin
Holivar. History of Runet. Part 3. Search engines: Yandex vs Rambler. How not to make an investment
"Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner."
Yuri Milner:
“Good evening, welcome to the Breakthrough Award Ceremony.”
Perhaps the most successful person in Runet is Yuri Milner, a billionaire global investor and founder of the Breakthrough scientific award - Breakthrough, along with such “pillars of the Internet” as Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Pony Ma. Prizes, more than the Nobel - $ 3 million.
Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook, 8th on the Forbes list.
Sergey Brin - co-founder of Google, 14th place on the Forbes list.
Pony Ma is the founder of Tencent, 20th place on the Forbes list.
“First of all, I would like to thank the electrons.”
Milner is a graduate of the Physics Department of Moscow State University, when he himself was a theoretical physicist, but after the collapse of the Union, he retrained as an investment banker. In 1999, Milner pondered where to invest his first capital.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“Having studied successively 10-20 sectors of the economy, I unexpectedly came across a then-young and growing sector called the Internet, the initial capital was practically not required, that is, it was possible to start and count on success with a small amount of resources.”
Milner attracted funds from other investors and created the company NetBridge, among the first purchases the site of jokes Fomenko.ru and the web directory List.ru German Klimenko.
German Klimenko, IT entrepreneur, founder of list.ru
“He was just a physicist, and then when he wanted to eat he became the arbitration manager. I came to the Internet after a pasta factory in my opinion. It somehow calls me, and says, “But do you know that your programmers are constantly late?” And he set a $ 10 late fee for an hour. Then he calls me in the middle of the month and says, listen, you know you have such a programmer, Maxim’s name, now he has run out of money. Does he know about this? I say - well, he knows, an adult. But what kind of programmers are they? They always didn't care, they could work until two in the morning, and they arrived when they woke up. Yura says: “and what will he do at the end of the month”? Well, at the end of the month he will probably quit. “And he will walk in time”? I say it will not. And he abolished late fines. There were no options. If you saw a programmer from a hangover, well, bring him a beer in the end, because scolding him is pointless, right? But if he brings him beer, he will even do something. ”
Alexey Krivenkov, just like Milner, graduated from the physics department, only in St. Petersburg. Working in an American IT company, he developed the first Russian-language mail service. The site mail.ru became the main asset of the company port.ru, which Krivenkov founded together with his American partner Eugene Holland. In 1999, it was possible to attract the first investments in Runet history.
Alexey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“And that was then a million dollars. And it was absolutely crazy money, worthy of being printed about it on the first page of Kommersant. Money has come to the Russian Internet. ”
Mail.ru is one of the three most visited sites on the Internet. Young Krivenkov, along with an investor, told CNN about the company's success phenomenon.
- "Alexey, first of all, such a question, what is your site for?"
“This is the free webmail I programmed a year ago.”
“Jimmy, you joined the project last March to help attract investment. How's it going? ”
“We have attracted investment, but with great difficulty, the Americans have a phobia, they are afraid to invest in Russia, they don’t understand how attractive the country is for investment right now.”
After the Dotcom crisis in 2000, American investors were no longer so optimistic.
The Dotkom crisis - the collapse of the securities market of Internet companies in the United States due to the inflated cost of their shares.
At this point, Yuri Milner proposed a plan to merge Port.ru with his company NetBridge. There was one person against the deal - Krivenkov.
Alexey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“I was simply embarrassed that it did not look like a merger of equals and it was much more interesting for us to merge with Yandex than to merge for a bit of money with Fomenko.ru and, by and large, give part of the company because of the wise and somehow strategically seeing this adult Manager. "
Not meeting understanding Krivenkov sold his share to Milner and left the company.
Alexey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“The only thing I regret is that I didn’t leave myself a small part as a souvenir. Now this souvenir would not be bad. But then I was a rather impulsive young maximalist and it seemed to me that the gestures should be beautiful. "
The new company was named mail.ru after the most valuable asset. The merger in fact was a takeover. Soon, no one was left in the company from the old Port.ru team. Yuri Milner became the main board of directors. Development was built on the Chinese model.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“I began to travel to China since 2003, I think it was extremely useful from the point of view of some business models. For example, the combination of social networks and games, online games, this is certainly what we spied in China. ”
The main ideologist of the integration of games was Baumanka graduate Dmitry Grishin. At 22, he became the technical director of mail.ru, and a couple of years later general. Grishin himself is an inveterate geek and gamer, he wrote his first game as a schoolboy.
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
“There were popular chewing gum called Turbo. They were liners with cars. I won an insert with an Alfa Romeo typewriter and I made a game from this picture. That is, I’ve never had a car in my life ... Where did the Alfa Romeo car come from in Saratov in the 1990s? ”
“Did you ride Tesla before that?”
“No, this is the first time.”
- "Really? OU"…
- “I heard mixed reviews about” ...
“I won’t do it anymore, I promise.”
“The pilot is working like this. Turned on, increased speed and everything, we go. Now the road will be turning, look. ”
- "In general, this car is a geek's dream, yes?"
- “Well, like that, yes, it’s possible here, immediately the Internet works” ...
“Prior to this, the entire Western world was organized as follows. You pay denyuzhku, buy a game and play, but in Russia this model does not work very well for many reasons. And they came up with a model when people make a game for free, they play it, have fun, and then you offer them all kinds of things that allow them to improve their feelings in some way. ”
A successful auto parts dealer from Murmansk, Igor Motsanyuk, at the beginning of the 2000s was carried away by Fight Club, the first browser game in Russia.
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, chairman of the board of directors, Game Insight
“There is nothing to do on the weekend, someone came in and somebody killed me right there. And I think that for a circus in general, how? They killed ... No, it is necessary to punish. It is necessary to grow, pump over the character. Well, that’s what happened and after half a year I was one of the top players of the Fight Club. I spent enough money and I think, well, that's it, we need to somehow stop it. I honestly don’t remember how much, but it’s tens of thousands of dollars. Thousands there is nothing. ”
Among the players of the “Fight Club” there were quite a few status people. Sergey Zhukov from the Hands Up group played under the name "the one who should not be called."
Sergey Zhukov, lead singer of Hands Up
“I went with my children to rest there in Egypt or Turkey, I don’t remember, that means an adult uncle and at 4 am conquers the tower there, Lord ... You understand, I lost my whole vacation, it’s just stupid. By the way, it was there that I bought a ring, some of the most expensive for ten bucks. And that’s how I met the brotherhood, so to speak, in which all of us subsequently were, well, yes, horror, yes? ”
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
“Why do people buy expensive watches or expensive cars? Well, to be honest, Ferrari is in a traffic jam just like Zaporozhets, the speed of movement in Moscow is different, but not very much, but emotionally, as if other sensations. Also in games, people are ready to just spend some denyuzhki, just to visually look better in the game than others. Yes, at the show-off. ”
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, chairman of the board of directors, Game Insight
“Well, we won’t fit on this one, yes. But it's dangerous, let's go to the classics. "
In 2003, Motsanyuk decided to sell his character, but instead the owner of the Fight Club banned him. Then Motsanyuk with gamers from the same clan developed his own online games - “Territory” and “Legends and Legacy of the Dragons”. Placed at the beginning in the office of Sergei Zhukov. The villains from the Fight Club were defeated.
Sergey Zhukov, lead singer of Hands Up
“The thirst for justice and revenge drove us forward and I swear to you that there is nothing in life that is more incentivizing than the desire to actually be made in such a civilized way, right? Fuck a man. "
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, chairman of the board of directors, Game Insight
“When we trampled with Legend, she earned up to $ 6 million a month at the peak, and in fact, we took this market. Of course there were still competitors, in the end we were the biggest I think that even in Eastern Europe, not only in Russia for online games. "
In 2007, Dmitry Grishin suggested that Motsanyuk, on favorable terms, join forces with the Mail.ru holding and head it. Another co-founder, Sergey Zhukov, sold his share.
Sergey Zhukov, lead singer of Hands Up
“I envy him with such white envy and envy him all my life after that, because Igor was able to discern that even though this industry was sick of us at that moment that the future was with it. And at that moment I said that that’s all, I’m already playing games, I’ll go to music, I said, I bought the mp3.ru website and started selling music legally, thinking that this is the future. ”
Games still bring about a third of Mail.ru Group’s total profit. Motsanyuk became the first vice president of the company, but did not last long. In the corporate framework, it was crowded.
“If Yuri Borisovich calls you, then he needs something. And if he needs something, then it costs money. When Yuri Borisovich calls, you need to say, Yuri Borisovich, how much is the call, for $ 100,000, for a million dollars? In this sense, he is such an absolute robot, he has no emotions, nothing, but a daffodil. If you personally do not touch him in any way, do not offend him, then everything is perfect in general, you work with a robot. ”
All zero Milner continued to actively collect various assets under the roof of Mail.ru. Soon, social games began to be added to the games. network.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“Here, inspiration came from the West, at that moment myspace already existed and Facebook was quite actively developing, and of course we began to look for something similar in the Russian segment and found that there are not just one, but even two companies - Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte . It’s very unusual on a global scale, usually a single social network ultimately dominates the country. ”
The first social network in Runet was Odnoklassniki, the founder Albert Popkov without a higher education makes a brilliant career as a programmer, at the beginning of the zero he heads the development department at a major British help desk, while the company is trying to launch a social network similar to the American Classmates.com, Odnoklassniki translated from English.
- Drive your wallet fast ...
- Eric Fisher?
- It's me Jay, Jay Anderson, dude, when did we last see each other?
- At a zippy party!
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
“There was already a Classmates system, but this could not be called strictly a social network in the current sense. Then it was here, register, you see there is such a list of the same registered, no photos, no chats, you need to pay 24 dollars a year for the right to send messages that in principle would not have taken root. We decided to create a similar site in other countries in order to project the same thing on Germany, France on Europe. ”
In 2006, a competing company lured Popkova while the design process was in progress, the programmer wrote and launched Odnoklassniki. The audience grew so rapidly that Popkov quit his London career and returned to Moscow.
“In many ways, we got into the stream precisely because digital photographs came and because there was an explosive increase in high-speed access, people got computers that are always connected to the network and people switched from using in offices to using at home.”
A year after Odnoklassniki, a Vkontakte network appeared. High school friends Lev Leviev and Vyacheslav Mirilashvili are children of reputable entrepreneurs with Jewish roots. In the mid-2000s, both studied in the West, where they met back then with the student network Facebook.
Lev Leviev, venture investor, co-founder of Vkontakte network
“The idea to create Facebook in Russia came only in St. Petersburg, when we both moved there, and this happened when my partner Vyacheslav met with Pavel, with whom he was in high school in St. Petersburg. And when Pavel told him about his site at St. Petersburg State University, the forum was called in my opinion, the idea came to Glory immediately and he said that you are aware of such a project as Facebook? He showed it to Pavel, Pavel wasn’t in the know, and here is the story. ”
Leviev and Mirilashvili lent money from their parents and invested in a startup. Pavel Durov attracted the elder brother Nikolai, a multiple winner of international mathematics and programming contests, to the development of the site.
“As a classifying topus of the profinite group, we take the detailed fundamental group of our curve.”
In 2007, Milner’s DST fund bought a stake in two networks at once, first in Odnoklassniki, and a few months later in Vkontakte.
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
“Yuri, he simply offered an order of magnitude more. And he suggested not even how much money, but how much faith in the project. That is, he really said that the future is yours. If you do everything as you do, then I believe in you that you will be one of the leaders of the Russian Internet there. It’s another matter that I didn’t know that there were several of those whom he told. ”
Lev Leviev, venture investor, co-founder of Vkontakte network
“Half a year after we created the company, Yuri Milner came, personally contacted us, personally came and talked. We were struck by the fact that he himself arrived, that is, he really wanted to. There were other funds that came, but the estimates were about 10 times less than Yuri gave us. We had very good friendly relations and all the boards of directors passed very informally, we met in a restaurant, went through the statistics of the site and then we talked about some more philosophical things. ”
Durov turned out to be a brilliant marketer, the company rented the most spectacular office in St. Petersburg - Singer House, on Nevsky. Durov himself built a mysterious image of Neo from the Matrix. Moreover, both figuratively and literally, having made several plastic surgeries.
George Lobushkin, employee, and then head of the press service of Vkontakte in 2011-2016
“Durov had a position that programmers should be separate, in such a closed world, they should be in a cocoon, the Singer House was a cocoon. These are 15-20 people, employees. This is an absolutely magical atmosphere, some kind of workshop of secrets, a bunch of like-minded people and Durov their leader and they all followed him, helped everyone to go forward. A sect, yes, a real sect, absolutely. And many are right here sectarians and I think that I was like that too. It seems to me still not let go. That is, if I had the opportunity to return to this sect, I would return and become exactly the same sectarian. But actually I didn’t stop being them, just the sect moved. There, for various reasons, well ... "
Neo's ridiculous eccentric actions from Peter alternated with gestures that evoked universal respect.
Pavel Durov, founder of the Vkontakte network
“Wikipedia does a lot for us all, and I think it's right to repay it the same. I personally decided to transfer $ 1 million to Wikipedia. I hope that Jimmy and his colleagues will approve my decision and make a donation. "
“Before I answer you, I have a question. And how old are you? 27. When I was 27 I didn’t give a million dollars to anyone. ”
The Vkontakte network grew so rapidly that a year later it was ahead of Odnoklassniki in the number of users.
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
We had certain postulates that we did not want to cross, but Vkontakte could. Porn, theft of content, Vkontakte made music very quickly, made video sharing. "
- “So Vkontakte were less picky?”
“Well, I would not say that they are less picky, they faced all the same problems, they were bolder and more mobile.”
Left behind by young and daring competitors, Odnoklassniki nevertheless maintained the loyalty of a more mature, more feminine and more provincial audience. In RuNet, the social network has become an inexhaustible object for jokes.
“Every week we read news stories in Odnoklassniki and select the strangest comments, this is“ People's Class ”- another reason not to buy a laptop for your father. Oh rushing ... Look at our village brought fashion avks. Really? Is that shit also paid? ”
Anton Nosik, runet evangelist
“For people who have lived their lives unsuccessfully and in vain and in adulthood see that they surrounded themselves with some kind of the wrong people, Odnoklassniki network, like Classmates.com, allows you to take an eraser and erase all this random foam.Classmates, obviously, this is not for those for whom Facebook, Vkontakte. Facebook, Vkontakte for those who have everything ahead, and Odnoklassniki for those who have everything there 30 years ago had their last interesting meetings. ”
In 2008, the former British employer Popkov sued him, accusing him of stealing the source code for Odnoklassniki, as a compensation, the plaintiff demanded to give the site and all the profits made. We managed to fight back from the lawsuit, but Popkov was removed from the management of the company.
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
“The company was led by another person. Accordingly, at the same time the same paid access was introduced, which Odnoklassniki very much squandered in the competition. He ruined the hype. There was such a hype that such a young resource, wow, is developing, you can find pictures there. And suddenly, at some point, another hype went that they were greedy, they were rowing money, pay for it, pay for it, pay for gifts, pay for access. And this sagged. "
After rebranding under the leadership of the new CEO Ilya Shirokov, the social network managed to maintain second place in Russia, still ahead of Facebook by audience. Among the fashionable innovations are streams, the best way to see Russia Odnoklassniki without leaving your home.
In 2008, a global financial crisis erupted, affecting Runet so that the company continued to grow. Milner himself needed a large investor and he found it.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“I talked with almost all representatives of the Forbes list, Russian at that time, to which I had at least some way. And everyone said no, with the exception of one, Mr. Usmanov. "
Alisher Usmanov is the founder of UMS Holdings, 118th place on the Forbes list.
“But I don’t think that he was generally familiar with this industry at all and there was some kind of process”
- “Did he use a computer”?
“Well, I did not see him actively using a computer. But somehow he showed real curiosity and interest, he listened to my arguments and he became first an investor Mail.ru, and then the first investor DST Global. "
Milner together with Usmanov create the DST Global fund and start investing in foreign Internet companies. The first investment is the purchase of a little less than 2% of Facebook. This video was shot right after the deal.
“First of all, congratulations to each of you, Mark, you have more money. Yuri, you got a part of Facebook, how much exactly based on the company's valuation of $ 10 billion? ”
- "1.96%."
“Plus, you will increase your share when you can buy shares on the stock exchange in a couple of months.”
“Yes, but let's see how much.”
“Why did you decide to invest in Facebook?”
“Because it's a great company.”
“Are you satisfied with the estimated value of the company at $ 10 billion?”
“Absolutely.”
“Would you pay more?” How much maximum "?
- "Such questions are not asked after the transaction, I do not want to know the answer."
“Watching how Vkontakte develops, and also have the opportunity to be an investor in Odnoklassniki, it became clear to us that Facebook is the company that can really make money. But this was not clear to almost all international investors. But this was a successful investment, perhaps one of the most successful in the history of international investments in technology companies, but we do not officially disclose the exact parameters.
In 2012, Facebook entered an IPO, a stake in DST Global, increased to 10%, began to cost billions of dollars, after which investors sold it.
Alisher Usmanov
"I admired Facebook, but I told him ariverderchy, you can’t earn all the money, you have to let others earn it.
" "I have a much deeper relationship with the Internet than you, I don’t use it, I develop it.
" "You developing the internet? Really?You do not develop the Internet; you spoil it for us. ”
After the video battle with Navalny, it was customary to laugh at Usmanov on the Internet, but it was the oligarch’s money that helped Milner to conduct a successful IPO Mail.ru Group on the London stock exchange, increasing the company's capitalization by almost a billion dollars.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“What happened in RuNet is a unique thing on a global scale. There is only China where they managed to build their local Internet, but they used state protectionism to a large extent, but we in the Russian segment did not have any protectionism and nevertheless managed to maintain a leading position. ”
“On the contrary, everything was built without government intervention.”
“At least when I was still participating, that is, until 2010, Runet developed in general absolutely independently and very competitively, there was absolutely such an ideal competitive environment.”
After the Mail.ru Group entered the London Stock Exchange, Miller sold his stake, transferred power to Dmitry Grishin and moved his family to California, where he bought one of the largest and most expensive houses in Silicon Valley. Now Milner is a global investor, no longer invests in RuNet. Milner’s first departure from Mail.ru Group was felt by Pavel Durov.
Nikolay Kononov, writer, author of the book "Code of Durov"
“Milner was very tired of the Russian Internet and they made out with his co-investor Usmanov that all global projects remained in his one unit, and all the Russians fell under Usmanov’s control and at that moment Vkontakte lost contact with Mail.ru Group. Usmanov wrote to them on Vkontakte that now you are one structure, let's communicate, interact, and mail.ru wanted to eat Durov administratively so that he obeyed them and fit into their corporate structure. Durov did not want this. "
Former Vkontakte PR manager Georgy Lobushkin himself works at mail.ru today, but his soul is still with Durov.
Georgy Lobushkin, employee, and then head of the VKontakte press service in 2011-2016
“I just came when Pavel Durov posted the middle finger on his Instagram. Of course, we were all in shock, well, nice, because to strengthen our position as a leader in the team, this is an absolutely competent step. And after that, he probably pumped Vkontakte even more as an hr-brand. Durov’s reputation has skyrocketed because there is a small Vkontakte, a small team and some huge holding company that he wants to absorb there. This is absolutely a story of heroism, success, if I may call it that. ”
- “You personally didn’t want to personally show him the same thing and say, well, you go”?
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
Listen, well, it seems to me there are just different genres. There is a genre of shocking, but there is a genre of systematic work. Probably this genre is not in my DNA, but Pavel’s does it wonderfully and therefore everyone should do what he does well. ”The
troubles didn’t end there, Durov quarreled with his closest co-founders, Milirashvili and Leviev. The co-founders sold their the share is not friendly to the buyer, not friendly to the investor Ilya
Scherbovich George Lobushkin, employee, and then head of the Vkontakte press service in 2011-2016
Then a new era began, an even more powerful, constant attack, a media attack on Vkontakte and Durov. Auditors Auditors are like bloodhounds. That magic, where strangers, even journalists, could not be called, people came to the Singer’s House, sitting next to the developers and, in general, with employees who were not even 18, they were still children, and they behaved like bloodhounds. It seems to me then maybe it was emotionally a little crippled him, everyone could be under suspicion, and when there is mistrust it is very difficult to work. This is already losing team spirit. Probably the main thing. One of the main assets of Durov.
The head of VKontakte Pavel Durov will be interrogated by investigators in the ICR department in St. Petersburg, lawyers confirmed that he was handed a summons, we are talking about a loud accident in which a traffic inspector suffered.
Soon after the purchase of Shcherbovich’s shares, another blow, for allegedly running into a traffic cop, brought a criminal case against Durov, the founder of VKontakte temporarily leaves Russia.
Nikolai Kononov, writer, author of the book “Code of Durov”
“Having entered the capital of Vkontakte, although Durov tried to challenge it, Shcherbovich began to bend his line very clearly, it was clear that this was connected with the criminal case against Durov this was seen in the handwriting of Igor Sechin, with whom Scherbovich was familiar. Durov did not go to Russia for some time. Thus, he received a clear signal that it would be better to somehow implement his Usmanovsky option, take money, engage in Telegram and no longer know anything about the escape from the cops and about Igor Ivanovich Sechin. ”
“Did you attract them?”
Lev Leviev, venture investor, co-founder of the Vkontakte network
- “Well, they essentially found us themselves.”
- "Who was behind him, that is, a lot of different ..."?
“Well, I don’t want to comment on this, that is, I don’t know, we didn’t come across anything like that, it was not the only fund with which ... The exact motivation is not known, but it’s obvious that after they sold Mail.ru they made money, so I think it was a financial investment. ”
Usmanov Alisher Burkhanovich, founder of USM Holding.
The conflict was resolved by Alisher Usmanov, having bought back the shares of Durov and Shcherbovich and thus gaining full control over the social network.
Most of the VKontakte team moved to the new Mail.ru office in Moscow, two skyscrapers on Leningradsky Prospekt, Durov’s nightmare about the complete absorption of the social network by Mail.ru holding came true. Durov himself with a team of closest associates finally left Russia to develop a new business - the Telegram messenger.
- "You are essentially squeezed out of Vkontakte by people associated with the authorities, is that so?"
“Roughly speaking, yes.”
- "Roughly speaking? Why roughly? Is that not quite true? ”
“I rather mean that it’s true and it was rude.”
Having sold stocks worth more than $ 100 million after IPO Mail.ru, Igor Motsanyuk left the holding and opened with his girlfriend Alisa Chumachenko, the new game company Game Insight, which excelled in the growing market for mobile games.
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Game Insight
“It is impossible to make games without playing games, because this is part of the profession. I spend, well, at least 2 hours a day playing games. Well, you have to cut it, of course, especially I love Tolik Ropotov, he is CEO of Game Insight. He is also a fan. And then they sat down and let's drive the steeple. Well, of course, cool work, and hobbies are both development. ”
Games are serious business; Game Insight is one of the largest global companies in Russia. Now, nothing prevents you from enjoying the perfect climate and your favorite pastime (in Tenerife).
- “A laptop and that’s it. Laptop and mobile phone. ”
“So you don’t have to sit in an office in Moscow?”
“Well, sometimes you have to appear, people forget your name, you come to the office - you don’t recognize the employees, they don’t know who you are. Yes, it happens. Well, a big company, now how many, more than 600 people work, therefore. ”
Aleksey Krivenkov, after practicing various types of business, returned to Mail.ru Group, the company he once founded, only now as a hired manager.
Aleksey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“I thought I would have some kind of sensation, I would gnaw my elbows every evening and think that oh, it could all be mine, how could I shrug it all and stupidly look. But actually, absolutely not. ”
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
“Well, that's all we see now - Silicon Valley. Some iconic companies can be seen. The most iconic is ours of course - Grishin Robotics. Here is Facebook, here is Google and here is Apple. By the way, my daughter collected it. ”
Co-founder of Mail.ru and chairman of the board of directors of the company Dmitry Grishin, as well as most of the protagonists of this story, have spent a lot of time in recent years away from their homeland. In Silicon Valley, near Stanford, where he opened the Grishin Robotics Foundation.
“In general, it seems to me that the next 21st century will be about how Internet technologies integrate with the physical world. Here he will be about it. And robots are just what brings technology and the physical world together. ”
“Is there any investment in Russia?”
“No, we have a very cool engineering background, but the ability to create a business from engineering products, it needs to be pumped and developed.”
Welcome again to the Breakthrough Award Ceremony, the only ceremony in the universe that makes you smarter.
Yuri Milner, becoming one of the most respected venture capital investors in the world, can afford to fulfill his childhood dreams. Thanks to the Breakthrough Award he founded, the entrepreneur managed to make friends with Stephen Hawking, shortly before the death of a great scientist, and to launch a joint project Starshot with him, flying to the stars.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“This is the project that I can say I have dreamed about since childhood, since I read the book“ The Universe. A life. Reason “written by the famous physicist Shklovsky. In a nutshell, here at my fingertips is Scientific American magazine, which describes the details of this project. Mission to Alpha Centauri. Actually, in order to implement this project, we need a rather powerful source of light, which stands on the Earth and a certain sail, which will allow the spacecraft to move at a speed of 10-20% of the speed of light. "
Milner has already spent $ 100 million on his space projects. All this might seem like a sweet eccentricity, if only it was not about Milner, a man who is used to making dreams come true.
"Professor Hawking, once you said -" I can’t move, I’m talking using a computer, but my mind is free, free to explore the Universe and ask big questions, such as whether other civilizations exist, "today we join your mission "
"We are alive, we are endowed with intelligence, we must know."
If you return from space to the Mail.ru Group, then the company's revenue shows steady growth, but since 2014, the interest of Western investors in Russian IT companies has noticeably weakened. Last year, stock prices dipped 40%. The company is managed by Boris Dobrodeev, the son of Oleg Dobrodeev, the long-term head of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.
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Holivar. History of Runet. Part 2. Counterculture: populi, marijuana and the Kremlin
Holivar. History of Runet. Part 3. Search engines: Yandex vs Rambler. How not to make an investment
"Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner."
Disclaimer . This article is a transcript of the wonderful film "Holivar" by Andrey Loshak. There are people who save time and love text, there are those who cannot watch videos at work or on the road, but happily read Habr, there are hearing-impaired people for whom the sound track is inaccessible or difficult to understand. We decided for all of them and you to decrypt excellent content. Who still prefers the video - link at the end.
Yuri Milner:
“Good evening, welcome to the Breakthrough Award Ceremony.”
Perhaps the most successful person in Runet is Yuri Milner, a billionaire global investor and founder of the Breakthrough scientific award - Breakthrough, along with such “pillars of the Internet” as Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Pony Ma. Prizes, more than the Nobel - $ 3 million.
Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook, 8th on the Forbes list.
Sergey Brin - co-founder of Google, 14th place on the Forbes list.
Pony Ma is the founder of Tencent, 20th place on the Forbes list.
“First of all, I would like to thank the electrons.”
Milner is a graduate of the Physics Department of Moscow State University, when he himself was a theoretical physicist, but after the collapse of the Union, he retrained as an investment banker. In 1999, Milner pondered where to invest his first capital.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“Having studied successively 10-20 sectors of the economy, I unexpectedly came across a then-young and growing sector called the Internet, the initial capital was practically not required, that is, it was possible to start and count on success with a small amount of resources.”
Milner attracted funds from other investors and created the company NetBridge, among the first purchases the site of jokes Fomenko.ru and the web directory List.ru German Klimenko.
German Klimenko, IT entrepreneur, founder of list.ru
“He was just a physicist, and then when he wanted to eat he became the arbitration manager. I came to the Internet after a pasta factory in my opinion. It somehow calls me, and says, “But do you know that your programmers are constantly late?” And he set a $ 10 late fee for an hour. Then he calls me in the middle of the month and says, listen, you know you have such a programmer, Maxim’s name, now he has run out of money. Does he know about this? I say - well, he knows, an adult. But what kind of programmers are they? They always didn't care, they could work until two in the morning, and they arrived when they woke up. Yura says: “and what will he do at the end of the month”? Well, at the end of the month he will probably quit. “And he will walk in time”? I say it will not. And he abolished late fines. There were no options. If you saw a programmer from a hangover, well, bring him a beer in the end, because scolding him is pointless, right? But if he brings him beer, he will even do something. ”
Alexey Krivenkov, just like Milner, graduated from the physics department, only in St. Petersburg. Working in an American IT company, he developed the first Russian-language mail service. The site mail.ru became the main asset of the company port.ru, which Krivenkov founded together with his American partner Eugene Holland. In 1999, it was possible to attract the first investments in Runet history.
Alexey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“And that was then a million dollars. And it was absolutely crazy money, worthy of being printed about it on the first page of Kommersant. Money has come to the Russian Internet. ”
Mail.ru is one of the three most visited sites on the Internet. Young Krivenkov, along with an investor, told CNN about the company's success phenomenon.
- "Alexey, first of all, such a question, what is your site for?"
“This is the free webmail I programmed a year ago.”
“Jimmy, you joined the project last March to help attract investment. How's it going? ”
“We have attracted investment, but with great difficulty, the Americans have a phobia, they are afraid to invest in Russia, they don’t understand how attractive the country is for investment right now.”
After the Dotcom crisis in 2000, American investors were no longer so optimistic.
The Dotkom crisis - the collapse of the securities market of Internet companies in the United States due to the inflated cost of their shares.
At this point, Yuri Milner proposed a plan to merge Port.ru with his company NetBridge. There was one person against the deal - Krivenkov.
Alexey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“I was simply embarrassed that it did not look like a merger of equals and it was much more interesting for us to merge with Yandex than to merge for a bit of money with Fomenko.ru and, by and large, give part of the company because of the wise and somehow strategically seeing this adult Manager. "
Not meeting understanding Krivenkov sold his share to Milner and left the company.
Alexey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“The only thing I regret is that I didn’t leave myself a small part as a souvenir. Now this souvenir would not be bad. But then I was a rather impulsive young maximalist and it seemed to me that the gestures should be beautiful. "
The new company was named mail.ru after the most valuable asset. The merger in fact was a takeover. Soon, no one was left in the company from the old Port.ru team. Yuri Milner became the main board of directors. Development was built on the Chinese model.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“I began to travel to China since 2003, I think it was extremely useful from the point of view of some business models. For example, the combination of social networks and games, online games, this is certainly what we spied in China. ”
The main ideologist of the integration of games was Baumanka graduate Dmitry Grishin. At 22, he became the technical director of mail.ru, and a couple of years later general. Grishin himself is an inveterate geek and gamer, he wrote his first game as a schoolboy.
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
“There were popular chewing gum called Turbo. They were liners with cars. I won an insert with an Alfa Romeo typewriter and I made a game from this picture. That is, I’ve never had a car in my life ... Where did the Alfa Romeo car come from in Saratov in the 1990s? ”
“Did you ride Tesla before that?”
“No, this is the first time.”
- "Really? OU"…
- “I heard mixed reviews about” ...
“I won’t do it anymore, I promise.”
“The pilot is working like this. Turned on, increased speed and everything, we go. Now the road will be turning, look. ”
- "In general, this car is a geek's dream, yes?"
- “Well, like that, yes, it’s possible here, immediately the Internet works” ...
“Prior to this, the entire Western world was organized as follows. You pay denyuzhku, buy a game and play, but in Russia this model does not work very well for many reasons. And they came up with a model when people make a game for free, they play it, have fun, and then you offer them all kinds of things that allow them to improve their feelings in some way. ”
A successful auto parts dealer from Murmansk, Igor Motsanyuk, at the beginning of the 2000s was carried away by Fight Club, the first browser game in Russia.
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, chairman of the board of directors, Game Insight
“There is nothing to do on the weekend, someone came in and somebody killed me right there. And I think that for a circus in general, how? They killed ... No, it is necessary to punish. It is necessary to grow, pump over the character. Well, that’s what happened and after half a year I was one of the top players of the Fight Club. I spent enough money and I think, well, that's it, we need to somehow stop it. I honestly don’t remember how much, but it’s tens of thousands of dollars. Thousands there is nothing. ”
Among the players of the “Fight Club” there were quite a few status people. Sergey Zhukov from the Hands Up group played under the name "the one who should not be called."
Sergey Zhukov, lead singer of Hands Up
“I went with my children to rest there in Egypt or Turkey, I don’t remember, that means an adult uncle and at 4 am conquers the tower there, Lord ... You understand, I lost my whole vacation, it’s just stupid. By the way, it was there that I bought a ring, some of the most expensive for ten bucks. And that’s how I met the brotherhood, so to speak, in which all of us subsequently were, well, yes, horror, yes? ”
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
“Why do people buy expensive watches or expensive cars? Well, to be honest, Ferrari is in a traffic jam just like Zaporozhets, the speed of movement in Moscow is different, but not very much, but emotionally, as if other sensations. Also in games, people are ready to just spend some denyuzhki, just to visually look better in the game than others. Yes, at the show-off. ”
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, chairman of the board of directors, Game Insight
“Well, we won’t fit on this one, yes. But it's dangerous, let's go to the classics. "
In 2003, Motsanyuk decided to sell his character, but instead the owner of the Fight Club banned him. Then Motsanyuk with gamers from the same clan developed his own online games - “Territory” and “Legends and Legacy of the Dragons”. Placed at the beginning in the office of Sergei Zhukov. The villains from the Fight Club were defeated.
Sergey Zhukov, lead singer of Hands Up
“The thirst for justice and revenge drove us forward and I swear to you that there is nothing in life that is more incentivizing than the desire to actually be made in such a civilized way, right? Fuck a man. "
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, chairman of the board of directors, Game Insight
“When we trampled with Legend, she earned up to $ 6 million a month at the peak, and in fact, we took this market. Of course there were still competitors, in the end we were the biggest I think that even in Eastern Europe, not only in Russia for online games. "
In 2007, Dmitry Grishin suggested that Motsanyuk, on favorable terms, join forces with the Mail.ru holding and head it. Another co-founder, Sergey Zhukov, sold his share.
Sergey Zhukov, lead singer of Hands Up
“I envy him with such white envy and envy him all my life after that, because Igor was able to discern that even though this industry was sick of us at that moment that the future was with it. And at that moment I said that that’s all, I’m already playing games, I’ll go to music, I said, I bought the mp3.ru website and started selling music legally, thinking that this is the future. ”
Games still bring about a third of Mail.ru Group’s total profit. Motsanyuk became the first vice president of the company, but did not last long. In the corporate framework, it was crowded.
“If Yuri Borisovich calls you, then he needs something. And if he needs something, then it costs money. When Yuri Borisovich calls, you need to say, Yuri Borisovich, how much is the call, for $ 100,000, for a million dollars? In this sense, he is such an absolute robot, he has no emotions, nothing, but a daffodil. If you personally do not touch him in any way, do not offend him, then everything is perfect in general, you work with a robot. ”
All zero Milner continued to actively collect various assets under the roof of Mail.ru. Soon, social games began to be added to the games. network.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“Here, inspiration came from the West, at that moment myspace already existed and Facebook was quite actively developing, and of course we began to look for something similar in the Russian segment and found that there are not just one, but even two companies - Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte . It’s very unusual on a global scale, usually a single social network ultimately dominates the country. ”
The first social network in Runet was Odnoklassniki, the founder Albert Popkov without a higher education makes a brilliant career as a programmer, at the beginning of the zero he heads the development department at a major British help desk, while the company is trying to launch a social network similar to the American Classmates.com, Odnoklassniki translated from English.
- Drive your wallet fast ...
- Eric Fisher?
- It's me Jay, Jay Anderson, dude, when did we last see each other?
- At a zippy party!
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
“There was already a Classmates system, but this could not be called strictly a social network in the current sense. Then it was here, register, you see there is such a list of the same registered, no photos, no chats, you need to pay 24 dollars a year for the right to send messages that in principle would not have taken root. We decided to create a similar site in other countries in order to project the same thing on Germany, France on Europe. ”
In 2006, a competing company lured Popkova while the design process was in progress, the programmer wrote and launched Odnoklassniki. The audience grew so rapidly that Popkov quit his London career and returned to Moscow.
“In many ways, we got into the stream precisely because digital photographs came and because there was an explosive increase in high-speed access, people got computers that are always connected to the network and people switched from using in offices to using at home.”
A year after Odnoklassniki, a Vkontakte network appeared. High school friends Lev Leviev and Vyacheslav Mirilashvili are children of reputable entrepreneurs with Jewish roots. In the mid-2000s, both studied in the West, where they met back then with the student network Facebook.
Lev Leviev, venture investor, co-founder of Vkontakte network
“The idea to create Facebook in Russia came only in St. Petersburg, when we both moved there, and this happened when my partner Vyacheslav met with Pavel, with whom he was in high school in St. Petersburg. And when Pavel told him about his site at St. Petersburg State University, the forum was called in my opinion, the idea came to Glory immediately and he said that you are aware of such a project as Facebook? He showed it to Pavel, Pavel wasn’t in the know, and here is the story. ”
Leviev and Mirilashvili lent money from their parents and invested in a startup. Pavel Durov attracted the elder brother Nikolai, a multiple winner of international mathematics and programming contests, to the development of the site.
“As a classifying topus of the profinite group, we take the detailed fundamental group of our curve.”
In 2007, Milner’s DST fund bought a stake in two networks at once, first in Odnoklassniki, and a few months later in Vkontakte.
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
“Yuri, he simply offered an order of magnitude more. And he suggested not even how much money, but how much faith in the project. That is, he really said that the future is yours. If you do everything as you do, then I believe in you that you will be one of the leaders of the Russian Internet there. It’s another matter that I didn’t know that there were several of those whom he told. ”
Lev Leviev, venture investor, co-founder of Vkontakte network
“Half a year after we created the company, Yuri Milner came, personally contacted us, personally came and talked. We were struck by the fact that he himself arrived, that is, he really wanted to. There were other funds that came, but the estimates were about 10 times less than Yuri gave us. We had very good friendly relations and all the boards of directors passed very informally, we met in a restaurant, went through the statistics of the site and then we talked about some more philosophical things. ”
Durov turned out to be a brilliant marketer, the company rented the most spectacular office in St. Petersburg - Singer House, on Nevsky. Durov himself built a mysterious image of Neo from the Matrix. Moreover, both figuratively and literally, having made several plastic surgeries.
George Lobushkin, employee, and then head of the press service of Vkontakte in 2011-2016
“Durov had a position that programmers should be separate, in such a closed world, they should be in a cocoon, the Singer House was a cocoon. These are 15-20 people, employees. This is an absolutely magical atmosphere, some kind of workshop of secrets, a bunch of like-minded people and Durov their leader and they all followed him, helped everyone to go forward. A sect, yes, a real sect, absolutely. And many are right here sectarians and I think that I was like that too. It seems to me still not let go. That is, if I had the opportunity to return to this sect, I would return and become exactly the same sectarian. But actually I didn’t stop being them, just the sect moved. There, for various reasons, well ... "
Neo's ridiculous eccentric actions from Peter alternated with gestures that evoked universal respect.
Pavel Durov, founder of the Vkontakte network
“Wikipedia does a lot for us all, and I think it's right to repay it the same. I personally decided to transfer $ 1 million to Wikipedia. I hope that Jimmy and his colleagues will approve my decision and make a donation. "
“Before I answer you, I have a question. And how old are you? 27. When I was 27 I didn’t give a million dollars to anyone. ”
The Vkontakte network grew so rapidly that a year later it was ahead of Odnoklassniki in the number of users.
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
We had certain postulates that we did not want to cross, but Vkontakte could. Porn, theft of content, Vkontakte made music very quickly, made video sharing. "
- “So Vkontakte were less picky?”
“Well, I would not say that they are less picky, they faced all the same problems, they were bolder and more mobile.”
Left behind by young and daring competitors, Odnoklassniki nevertheless maintained the loyalty of a more mature, more feminine and more provincial audience. In RuNet, the social network has become an inexhaustible object for jokes.
“Every week we read news stories in Odnoklassniki and select the strangest comments, this is“ People's Class ”- another reason not to buy a laptop for your father. Oh rushing ... Look at our village brought fashion avks. Really? Is that shit also paid? ”
Anton Nosik, runet evangelist
“For people who have lived their lives unsuccessfully and in vain and in adulthood see that they surrounded themselves with some kind of the wrong people, Odnoklassniki network, like Classmates.com, allows you to take an eraser and erase all this random foam.Classmates, obviously, this is not for those for whom Facebook, Vkontakte. Facebook, Vkontakte for those who have everything ahead, and Odnoklassniki for those who have everything there 30 years ago had their last interesting meetings. ”
In 2008, the former British employer Popkov sued him, accusing him of stealing the source code for Odnoklassniki, as a compensation, the plaintiff demanded to give the site and all the profits made. We managed to fight back from the lawsuit, but Popkov was removed from the management of the company.
Albert Popkov, founder of odnoklassniki.ru
“The company was led by another person. Accordingly, at the same time the same paid access was introduced, which Odnoklassniki very much squandered in the competition. He ruined the hype. There was such a hype that such a young resource, wow, is developing, you can find pictures there. And suddenly, at some point, another hype went that they were greedy, they were rowing money, pay for it, pay for it, pay for gifts, pay for access. And this sagged. "
After rebranding under the leadership of the new CEO Ilya Shirokov, the social network managed to maintain second place in Russia, still ahead of Facebook by audience. Among the fashionable innovations are streams, the best way to see Russia Odnoklassniki without leaving your home.
In 2008, a global financial crisis erupted, affecting Runet so that the company continued to grow. Milner himself needed a large investor and he found it.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“I talked with almost all representatives of the Forbes list, Russian at that time, to which I had at least some way. And everyone said no, with the exception of one, Mr. Usmanov. "
Alisher Usmanov is the founder of UMS Holdings, 118th place on the Forbes list.
“But I don’t think that he was generally familiar with this industry at all and there was some kind of process”
- “Did he use a computer”?
“Well, I did not see him actively using a computer. But somehow he showed real curiosity and interest, he listened to my arguments and he became first an investor Mail.ru, and then the first investor DST Global. "
Milner together with Usmanov create the DST Global fund and start investing in foreign Internet companies. The first investment is the purchase of a little less than 2% of Facebook. This video was shot right after the deal.
“First of all, congratulations to each of you, Mark, you have more money. Yuri, you got a part of Facebook, how much exactly based on the company's valuation of $ 10 billion? ”
- "1.96%."
“Plus, you will increase your share when you can buy shares on the stock exchange in a couple of months.”
“Yes, but let's see how much.”
“Why did you decide to invest in Facebook?”
“Because it's a great company.”
“Are you satisfied with the estimated value of the company at $ 10 billion?”
“Absolutely.”
“Would you pay more?” How much maximum "?
- "Such questions are not asked after the transaction, I do not want to know the answer."
“Watching how Vkontakte develops, and also have the opportunity to be an investor in Odnoklassniki, it became clear to us that Facebook is the company that can really make money. But this was not clear to almost all international investors. But this was a successful investment, perhaps one of the most successful in the history of international investments in technology companies, but we do not officially disclose the exact parameters.
In 2012, Facebook entered an IPO, a stake in DST Global, increased to 10%, began to cost billions of dollars, after which investors sold it.
Alisher Usmanov
"I admired Facebook, but I told him ariverderchy, you can’t earn all the money, you have to let others earn it.
" "I have a much deeper relationship with the Internet than you, I don’t use it, I develop it.
" "You developing the internet? Really?You do not develop the Internet; you spoil it for us. ”
After the video battle with Navalny, it was customary to laugh at Usmanov on the Internet, but it was the oligarch’s money that helped Milner to conduct a successful IPO Mail.ru Group on the London stock exchange, increasing the company's capitalization by almost a billion dollars.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“What happened in RuNet is a unique thing on a global scale. There is only China where they managed to build their local Internet, but they used state protectionism to a large extent, but we in the Russian segment did not have any protectionism and nevertheless managed to maintain a leading position. ”
“On the contrary, everything was built without government intervention.”
“At least when I was still participating, that is, until 2010, Runet developed in general absolutely independently and very competitively, there was absolutely such an ideal competitive environment.”
After the Mail.ru Group entered the London Stock Exchange, Miller sold his stake, transferred power to Dmitry Grishin and moved his family to California, where he bought one of the largest and most expensive houses in Silicon Valley. Now Milner is a global investor, no longer invests in RuNet. Milner’s first departure from Mail.ru Group was felt by Pavel Durov.
Nikolay Kononov, writer, author of the book "Code of Durov"
“Milner was very tired of the Russian Internet and they made out with his co-investor Usmanov that all global projects remained in his one unit, and all the Russians fell under Usmanov’s control and at that moment Vkontakte lost contact with Mail.ru Group. Usmanov wrote to them on Vkontakte that now you are one structure, let's communicate, interact, and mail.ru wanted to eat Durov administratively so that he obeyed them and fit into their corporate structure. Durov did not want this. "
Former Vkontakte PR manager Georgy Lobushkin himself works at mail.ru today, but his soul is still with Durov.
Georgy Lobushkin, employee, and then head of the VKontakte press service in 2011-2016
“I just came when Pavel Durov posted the middle finger on his Instagram. Of course, we were all in shock, well, nice, because to strengthen our position as a leader in the team, this is an absolutely competent step. And after that, he probably pumped Vkontakte even more as an hr-brand. Durov’s reputation has skyrocketed because there is a small Vkontakte, a small team and some huge holding company that he wants to absorb there. This is absolutely a story of heroism, success, if I may call it that. ”
- “You personally didn’t want to personally show him the same thing and say, well, you go”?
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
Listen, well, it seems to me there are just different genres. There is a genre of shocking, but there is a genre of systematic work. Probably this genre is not in my DNA, but Pavel’s does it wonderfully and therefore everyone should do what he does well. ”The
troubles didn’t end there, Durov quarreled with his closest co-founders, Milirashvili and Leviev. The co-founders sold their the share is not friendly to the buyer, not friendly to the investor Ilya
Scherbovich George Lobushkin, employee, and then head of the Vkontakte press service in 2011-2016
Then a new era began, an even more powerful, constant attack, a media attack on Vkontakte and Durov. Auditors Auditors are like bloodhounds. That magic, where strangers, even journalists, could not be called, people came to the Singer’s House, sitting next to the developers and, in general, with employees who were not even 18, they were still children, and they behaved like bloodhounds. It seems to me then maybe it was emotionally a little crippled him, everyone could be under suspicion, and when there is mistrust it is very difficult to work. This is already losing team spirit. Probably the main thing. One of the main assets of Durov.
The head of VKontakte Pavel Durov will be interrogated by investigators in the ICR department in St. Petersburg, lawyers confirmed that he was handed a summons, we are talking about a loud accident in which a traffic inspector suffered.
Soon after the purchase of Shcherbovich’s shares, another blow, for allegedly running into a traffic cop, brought a criminal case against Durov, the founder of VKontakte temporarily leaves Russia.
Nikolai Kononov, writer, author of the book “Code of Durov”
“Having entered the capital of Vkontakte, although Durov tried to challenge it, Shcherbovich began to bend his line very clearly, it was clear that this was connected with the criminal case against Durov this was seen in the handwriting of Igor Sechin, with whom Scherbovich was familiar. Durov did not go to Russia for some time. Thus, he received a clear signal that it would be better to somehow implement his Usmanovsky option, take money, engage in Telegram and no longer know anything about the escape from the cops and about Igor Ivanovich Sechin. ”
“Did you attract them?”
Lev Leviev, venture investor, co-founder of the Vkontakte network
- “Well, they essentially found us themselves.”
- "Who was behind him, that is, a lot of different ..."?
“Well, I don’t want to comment on this, that is, I don’t know, we didn’t come across anything like that, it was not the only fund with which ... The exact motivation is not known, but it’s obvious that after they sold Mail.ru they made money, so I think it was a financial investment. ”
Usmanov Alisher Burkhanovich, founder of USM Holding.
The conflict was resolved by Alisher Usmanov, having bought back the shares of Durov and Shcherbovich and thus gaining full control over the social network.
Most of the VKontakte team moved to the new Mail.ru office in Moscow, two skyscrapers on Leningradsky Prospekt, Durov’s nightmare about the complete absorption of the social network by Mail.ru holding came true. Durov himself with a team of closest associates finally left Russia to develop a new business - the Telegram messenger.
- "You are essentially squeezed out of Vkontakte by people associated with the authorities, is that so?"
“Roughly speaking, yes.”
- "Roughly speaking? Why roughly? Is that not quite true? ”
“I rather mean that it’s true and it was rude.”
Having sold stocks worth more than $ 100 million after IPO Mail.ru, Igor Motsanyuk left the holding and opened with his girlfriend Alisa Chumachenko, the new game company Game Insight, which excelled in the growing market for mobile games.
Igor Motsanyuk, IT entrepreneur, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Game Insight
“It is impossible to make games without playing games, because this is part of the profession. I spend, well, at least 2 hours a day playing games. Well, you have to cut it, of course, especially I love Tolik Ropotov, he is CEO of Game Insight. He is also a fan. And then they sat down and let's drive the steeple. Well, of course, cool work, and hobbies are both development. ”
Games are serious business; Game Insight is one of the largest global companies in Russia. Now, nothing prevents you from enjoying the perfect climate and your favorite pastime (in Tenerife).
- “A laptop and that’s it. Laptop and mobile phone. ”
“So you don’t have to sit in an office in Moscow?”
“Well, sometimes you have to appear, people forget your name, you come to the office - you don’t recognize the employees, they don’t know who you are. Yes, it happens. Well, a big company, now how many, more than 600 people work, therefore. ”
Aleksey Krivenkov, after practicing various types of business, returned to Mail.ru Group, the company he once founded, only now as a hired manager.
Aleksey Krivenkov, co-founder of mail.ru
“I thought I would have some kind of sensation, I would gnaw my elbows every evening and think that oh, it could all be mine, how could I shrug it all and stupidly look. But actually, absolutely not. ”
Dmitry Grishin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group
“Well, that's all we see now - Silicon Valley. Some iconic companies can be seen. The most iconic is ours of course - Grishin Robotics. Here is Facebook, here is Google and here is Apple. By the way, my daughter collected it. ”
Co-founder of Mail.ru and chairman of the board of directors of the company Dmitry Grishin, as well as most of the protagonists of this story, have spent a lot of time in recent years away from their homeland. In Silicon Valley, near Stanford, where he opened the Grishin Robotics Foundation.
“In general, it seems to me that the next 21st century will be about how Internet technologies integrate with the physical world. Here he will be about it. And robots are just what brings technology and the physical world together. ”
“Is there any investment in Russia?”
“No, we have a very cool engineering background, but the ability to create a business from engineering products, it needs to be pumped and developed.”
Welcome again to the Breakthrough Award Ceremony, the only ceremony in the universe that makes you smarter.
Yuri Milner, becoming one of the most respected venture capital investors in the world, can afford to fulfill his childhood dreams. Thanks to the Breakthrough Award he founded, the entrepreneur managed to make friends with Stephen Hawking, shortly before the death of a great scientist, and to launch a joint project Starshot with him, flying to the stars.
Yuri Milner, global investor, co-owner and chairman of the board of directors of Mail.RU Group in 2001-2012
“This is the project that I can say I have dreamed about since childhood, since I read the book“ The Universe. A life. Reason “written by the famous physicist Shklovsky. In a nutshell, here at my fingertips is Scientific American magazine, which describes the details of this project. Mission to Alpha Centauri. Actually, in order to implement this project, we need a rather powerful source of light, which stands on the Earth and a certain sail, which will allow the spacecraft to move at a speed of 10-20% of the speed of light. "
Milner has already spent $ 100 million on his space projects. All this might seem like a sweet eccentricity, if only it was not about Milner, a man who is used to making dreams come true.
"Professor Hawking, once you said -" I can’t move, I’m talking using a computer, but my mind is free, free to explore the Universe and ask big questions, such as whether other civilizations exist, "today we join your mission "
"We are alive, we are endowed with intelligence, we must know."
If you return from space to the Mail.ru Group, then the company's revenue shows steady growth, but since 2014, the interest of Western investors in Russian IT companies has noticeably weakened. Last year, stock prices dipped 40%. The company is managed by Boris Dobrodeev, the son of Oleg Dobrodeev, the long-term head of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.
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