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Looking for advice on expanding a business into Russia

 
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ashton
Lounge Lizard


Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Posts: 80
Location: US

PostPosted: Fri Jul 02, 2004 6:09 pm    Post subject: Looking for advice on expanding a business into Russia Reply with quote

I was wondering if anyone could give me their advice on expanding an existing business into Russia. We are interested in expanding a website hosting company into Russia in the very near future. The company exists in the US today and we are essentially looking to sell our services in Russia. After extensive research we found that web hosting companies in Russia are usually more expensive than in the West and the service is much poorer.

We were trying to do this through aquaintences and friends but have decided that this would not be a good option as they really don't seem to understand webhosting, let alone the internet.

I am particularly looking for information on anything that exists in Russia such as partner programs or business groups in which to find business partners. Our thinking at this point is that we are better partnering with a Russian company to handle the sales within Russia and we will maintain operations from the US. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Ashton
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vettra
Lounge Lizard


Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Posts: 123
Location: Cleveland

PostPosted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

(here i go again..)
I don't think this is a good idea. Software, ISPs are relatively mom&pop style operations. There is a lot of competition. People use internet cafes, or buy internet connectivity via pre-paid cards over horrible-quality dial-up. Small operators divvy up wholesale internet connectivity to their neighbors; margins are tight. Wireless is making inroads - that may actually be the way to go; wireless presents lots of paradigm shifts. You may be able to compete, especially B-to-B, but I think you'll find there is vastly less money to be made. I suspect you can make more in, say, south carolina than all of Russia, offering web hosting or similar internet services. Telcos are probably the best target customers, they make oodles of cash.

If you're serious about this perhaps we can talk offline. I've been running a small software business over that way for ~3 years.
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