MOSCOW - U.S. companies Parallels and Google plan to invest around 300 million rubles in the Russian hosting market, the companies said in a press release.
It will not be a cash investment. Google plans before the end of 2012
to provide Russian small businesses with 200,000 free certificates for
contextual advertising in Google worth from 1,00 to 2,000 rubles. These
certificates can be obtained from small businesses that buy hosting from
Russian partners of Parallels and will use one of two Parallels
products – control panel Parallels Plesk Panel or website builder
WebPresenceBuilder. The amount paid must not be less than the face value
of the certificate.
“Parallels and Google have created an organic proposal for small
businesses – a set of tools that does not just enable fast and easy
creation of quality websites, but also the attraction of new clients,”
Maxim Kan, the head of the B2B Marketing division at Google Russia, was
cited as saying.
“Russian small businesses, which are not usually well represented on
the Internet, can do web promotion without spending on advertising,”
Konstantin Anisimov, the marketing director for Parallels in the RMEA
region, said. “Given the scale of investment such a company will yield a
tangible result,” he said.
Only 38% of small businesses in Russia have their own website, of
which 82% believe it is needed for publication of contacts, 46% for
publishing reference information about the company and 50% for
publishing product descriptions, the companies said.
Anisimov told Interfax the number of Russian partners is not very
high right now. “Parallels’ partners control over 50% of the Russian
hosting market – these are the biggest companies – on the level of
Reg.ru and Ru-Center,” he said.
Through these joint initiatives, Parallels intents to take on smaller
hosting companies, he said. “We already have the larger players and now
we are looking at the small players that control the other half of the
market,” he said.
Anisimov said Parallels was working with Google because it has long
and successfully worked with each hosting provider, which Google does
not do. “Thus the role of Parallels in this cooperation is to provide
access for Google to hosting providers as a channel for sales of
contextual advertising,” he said. “And for Parallels the task of the
campaign is the potential increase in hosting revenue through new
customers.”
Parallels was founded in 1999 by Sergei Belousov. It develops
software for providers of cloud services and desktop virtualization
systems (primarily for Apple computers), accounting for 78% of this
market. Parallels says it is a profitable company but does not disclose
its profits. The average annual rate of revenue growth over the past six
years has exceeded 50%. Annual revenue exceeds $100 million.
Parallels in 2005 raised funding from the Bessemer, Insight Venture
Partners and Intel Capital funds. Almaz Capital Partners, created by
venture businessman Alexander Galitsky, bought into the company in 2009.
