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Ruskie email provider Mail.ru chats up US market with My.com
That's commutainment, apparently
Russia's biggest email provider is hoping to crack the US market with the launch of My.com.
Mail.Ru's subsidiary has been set up in Mountain View, California, to punt a combination of mobile services and games - groan-inducingly described by the company as "commutainment" - at subscribers stateside.
The firm is run by one of Russia's richest men, Alisher Usmanov, the controversial Uzbekhi commodities plutocrat and Arsenal FC's major shareholder. The firm, which also claims to be the largest internet company in the Russian-speaking world, says it has 100 million users on its books.
It is now beefing up its brand with My.com to target a global audience with email management, a gaming platform and a messaging service. The firm controls a large portion of the online gaming market in Russia.
Mail.ru has a market capitalisation of $8.9bn and publicly trades on the London Stock Exchange.
Usmanov is known to dabble in early investments in Web2.0 properties. He recently sold his stock in Facebook when shares in the free content ad network were flying high - thereby scoring him a delicious jackpot of cash. ®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
