AFP - Russia's largest social network VKontakte has started labeling LGBT-themed pages on its site with warnings that they may violate draconian legislation signed into law this week banning the depiction of non-heterosexual relationships and identities. St. Petersburg-based tech firm VK, which owns VKontakte, said that its failure to comply with the new law would put it at risk of being blocked in Russia.
54 posts categorized "VKontakte"
Russian Social Network VKontakte Adds Warnings to All LGBT Content
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Prosus Gives up $403M Stake in Russia's VK Social Network
BLOOMBERG NEWS - Prosus NV gave up its stake in VK for nothing, walking away from a company run by an executive under US sanctions. VK sold the shares acquired from the Dutch e-commerce company to its management team at market price in a deal valued at $403M, VK said in a statement.
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Apple Restored the Russian Social Network VKontakte to the App Store
THE VERGE - Apple has reinstated VKontakte on the App Store after the company provided proof that it's not "majority owned or controlled by a sanctioned entity." The company removed the VK-owned social network VKontakte, email app Mail.ru, and others last month in response to sanctions the UK put on the financial institutions that own the Russian firm.
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Apple Takes Down Russian Social Network VK's App From the App Store
TECH CRUNCH - Apple has taken down Russian social network VK's app from its App Store globally. The social media company said the VKontakte app is not "not available for download and update in the App Store." However, apps that are already installed on Apple devices will continue to work but there might be some issues with payments and notifications. Plus, users can access the social network through the mobile website.
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Yandex's Sale of News and Zen to VK Completes
TECH CRUNCH - Russian search giant Yandex has confirmed the completion of the sale of two of its flagship media properties, News and Zen, to local social media giant, VK, following regulatory approvals. The sale includes the Yandex.ru homepage which will pass to VK - with visitors to that site being redirected to a renamed version of the page, dzen.ru, which is controlled and developed by VK.
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Yandex's Sale of Media Assets to VK Includes yandex.ru Homepage
TECH CRUNCH - Russian search giant Yandex has finalized the sale of its two flagship media properties to local rival VK, owner of the eponymous social network. The deal to sell the products, Yandex's algorithmically sorted news aggregator (News) and blogging recommender platform (Zen), also includes the sale of the main page, Yandex.ru, which integrates content from News and Zen into the search page. Once the sale completes, visitors browsing Yandex.ru will be redirected to a renamed version of the page, dzen.ru.
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Russia's VKontakte Owner VK Hit by Q2 Loss
REUTERS - VK, the owner of the Russian social network VKontakte, reported a Q2 net loss of $56M, partly due to a $231M foreign exchange hit. The company said that total adjusted EBITDA had fallen 37% YoY to $69M.
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VKontakte Opens API for Video Call Management
TELECOMPAPER - Russian social network VKontakte has opened its API for video call management on the social network to developers. Developers of web services, mobile applications, and VK Mini Apps will be able to automate video calls on VKontakte and manage them using the public API. Developers can create links for calls in advance, share them with users, and launch and complete conferences according to a pre-established schedule.
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Russian Social Network, VK, Launches Alternative RuStore App Store
NEOWIN - The Russian social network firm, VK, has launched a new app store called RuStore as an alternative to the Google Play Store. The store is part of a campaign by the government for the creation of alternative services so it's not reliant on Western companies. The RuStore is available to Android users from today but due to iOS limits, it probably won't arrive on that platform. At launch, RuStore will ship with a paltry 100 applications and some of these include government services.
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Yandex Signs Deal With VK to Sell Its Media Products, News, and Zen
TECH CRUNCH - In further fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Yandex, referred to as the 'Google of Russia', has signed a term sheet to sell its media division to VK. It has signed a term sheet to divest its news aggregator (News) and blogging/infotainment platform (Zen) with VK. VK as the leading contender is said to acquire Yandex's media assets as the latter looked for an exit from rising risk in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin's tightening its grip on freedom of expression.
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VKontakte Reports ~100M in Monthly Audience
TELECOMPAPER - Russian social network VKontakte has announced that its monthly audience has exceeded 100M for the first time. The daily number of video-content views on the network has jumped to 1.31B. The increase has been reported against the background of the Russian government blocking foreign social networks and video services.
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VK Seeks Debt Negotiations as Bond Redemption Looms
BLOOMBERG - According to a filing, Russian social network operator VK Co. Ltd. may lack the cash to redeem its convertible bond and will start talks with bondholders to find alternative options. If trading in VK's stock doesn't resume before the end of the day on Mar 16, a delisting clause in the company’s convertible bond documentation will be triggered, allowing bondholders to request converting their debt into equity or repaying the bond. The principal outstanding on the convertible bond maturing in 2026 is $400M, and the company had $140M of liquidity in foreign currency.
by Giulia Morpurgo & Irene Garcia Perez
See full article at Bloomberg
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Prosus to Write off $700M Stake in Russia's VK Group
REUTERS - Dutch technology investor Prosus will write off its entire 25.9% stake in Moscow-headquartered online platform VK Group, following CEO Vladimir Kirienko's addition to a U.S. sanctions list. Trading in London shares was suspended on Mar 3 after tumbling 92% this year. "As a consequence of these sanctions, Prosus asked its directors on the VK board to resign their positions," the Dutch company said.
by Toby Sterling & Promit Mukherjee
See full article at Reuters
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The US Has Sanctioned Russia's Largest Social Network Head
THE VERGE - Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian banks, energy and infrastructure companies, and several individual Russian elites. Among the sanctioned individuals is Vladimir Kiriyenko, CEO of VK Group, the parent company of Russia's biggest social network, VKontakte. While he isn't being sanctioned specifically for his work with the VK group, the result still forbids one of the country's most powerful tech executives from doing business with any US entity.
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Russian Social Media Network Vkontakte to Introduce NFT Support
BITCOIN.COM - Russia's largest social media network, Vkontakte, has announced it will introduce support for blockchain and NFTs. The crypto technologies will be incorporated into the platform's scheme to monetize user content and copyright protection.
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