Actuality September, 03, 2007

Proceeds of one of the largest Russian services of internet datings — Mamba.ru grew by 64% in the first half-year of 2007 as compared to the same period of 2006. Other Russian internet companies did not report on January — June yet, but last year they grew even faster.

Internet datings service Mamba.ru was created in 2002. The owner of 100% of shares is the investment company “Finam”, 68,5% of them belong to the unit investment trust “Finam – Information technologies”. Mamba.ru has 7000 sites-partners. In the database of service there are 9 million of questionnaires, 4 million of active users Mamba.ru income for 2006 was $7,3 million, net income — $3,4 million, profitability on EBITDA — 47%.

Mamba.ru income for the first half-year made 131 million RUB ($5,12 million) — 64% more than for the same period of 2006. About 100 million RUB are receipts from paid sms (messages via cell phone), the rest are payments of users by electronic money, street pay terminals, plastic cards and “Mamba cards” plus profits from placement of advertising on partner sites. Other companies of zone of Russian internet (.ru) did not report on the first half-year. In 2006 incomes of Yandex and Russian Business Consulting (RBC) were doubled, and Rambler one grew by 64,5%.

In 2007 the market turnover of online datings service will make, as it is estimated by analysts, $20 million — after deduction of commissions, withheld by the operators of cell communication, pay systems, and publicity receipts. Last year the users of .ru internet spent for the services related to the introductions $15-20 million, as the head of the Sup-Fabrik department of researches estimates. But the sites got less: about 90% of users payments are effected by sms (messages via cell phone) and approximately 40% of these sums are taken by the operators of cell communication.

According to service of online statistics Alexa.com, two largest partners of “Mamba” — Mail.ru and Rambler.ru occupy the 23rd and the 56th places in the whole Internet, respectively. And on these sites the second places on popularity (after title pages) are occupied by the services of datings — love.mail.ru and love.rambler.ru.

Other Russian dating service, loveplanet.ru (belongs to the RBC holding), according to Alexa.com, is the 16th by traffic among the sites of .ru . General Manager of “Loveplanet” LTD Alex Rubtsov says that from the beginning of 2007 the audience of his site grew in dozens times. The sites of dating service are of those few where it is easy to earn money: users are ready to pay for services themselves and can easily hold the purse strings, he notices. Also datings on Mamba.ru and similar services are free: a user pays only for additional services — for example, for sending voice-message report to the owner of questionnaire which interested him or for placing own questionnaire on the title page of dating service site.