DLD Introduces the Future Market of Russia

MUNICH, May 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

"Over 50 million Russians use the internet, making the country a dynamic digital and consumer market. That's why DLD now offers international investors, companies and experts direct insights and networking opportunities in the Russian digital world," explain Steffi Czerny and Marcel Reichart, founder and Managing Director of DLD.

Numerous founders and management boards of leading Russian digital companies - including Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of the Russian search engine group Yandex, Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the Russian social network VKontakte, Dmitry Grishin, CEO of the Russian stock market-listed internet company Mail.ru, Maelle Gavet, CEO of the e-commerce platform Ozon.ru and Oskar Hartmann, founder and CEO of the private shopping platform KupiVIP, are represented as speakers at DLD Moscow in the "Digital October Center". In addition, entrepreneurs, creative people and experts from the international DLD community, including the Italian designer Lapo Elkann, Matt Michelsen from Lady Gaga's littlemonsters.com or the Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima will also be speaking. On the political side of things, Arkady Dvorkovich, the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, as well as the foreign affairs speaker of the German CDU political party Philipp Missfelder will be participating.    

Furthermore, international digital entrepreneurs like Xing and HackFwd founder Lars Hinrich and international experts like Ludwig Siegele (The Economist) will attend the event. McKinsey will introduce a new study discussing economic digital management in an international comparison. In addition, a range of Russian, Israeli, European and American digital start-ups will present their business models and concepts in the fields of fashion, education and gaming.  

At the conference, as is standard at Digital-Life-Design, exchanges beyond the podium will also play an essential role. The first conference in Russia promises more than 500 expected guests, half of whom are from abroad, exciting insights and the potential to make business contacts in the important capital and various technology locations.

The "Digital October Center", a former chocolate factory opposite the Kremlin, has become a highly modernised center which specialises in new technologies and entrepreneurship. The host of DLD Moscow is the Skolkovo Foundation, which provides numerous contributions to the digital and technological promotion of innovations in Russia. In 2010, the Skolkovo Foundation, directed by the Russian entrepreneur Viktor Vekselberg, was created in order to accompany the development of the science and innovation centre.  

Local companies in particular are among the most significant accelerators of growth in digital Russia. The search engine operator Yandex, for example, founded in 2000 by Arkady Volozh, is the obvious market leader with over 60 percent of market shares, thereby relegating Google to second place. Another giant in the Russian market is the Mail.ru group under CEO Dmitry Grishin, which was founded in 2005 and is the largest provider of internet services in the Russian speaking market. Russians are also international forerunners when it comes to using social networks. Vkontakte, founded by Pavel Durov, already had one million registered users only nine months after its launch in 2006. Up to 34 million users currently visit the site daily.

But DLD not only represents digital innovation, it also provides cultural insight into the current Russian music scene; the synth-pop band Tesla Boy will be performing at the DLD Moscow Night in the Strelka Institutes amphitheatre, an international architecture, media and design centre. Also performing: DJ Spooky aka Paul Miller from New York and the Ukrainian Band Quest Pistols, winner of the MTV European Music Awards 2008.

In addition to the DLD Chairmen, Burda CEO Kallen and Skolkovo President Vekselberg, the executive directors of the Russian company Fast Lane Ventures (Marina Treshchova) and the German company eVentures (Andreas Haug), who together have been investing in Russian start-ups since 2010, have been invited to the Chairman's Cocktail on Sunday evening on the River Palace Boat.

DLD Moscow will be held in English and will be streamed live: via Digital October, Presdo, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr - more details can be found at http://www.dldmoscow.com.

Background:

DLD is the international conference and innovation platform of Hubert Burda Media. DLD Media creates Europe's leading digital conference DLD, the women's conference DLDwomen, and international network events in places like Palo Alto, New York, London, Tel Aviv, Rio de Janeiro and Beijing. DLD produces media publications, online and video formats as well as studies on the conference content, and advises DLD partner companies, start-ups, investors and institutions. Its Managing Directors are Stephanie Czerny and Dr. Marcel Reichart, who founded the DLD Conference in 2005.

Additional information:
Michael A. Pries
Hubert Burda Media
Corporate Communications
Arabella St. 23
81925 Munich
Tel.: +49-89-9250-3784
Email: michael.pries@burda.com