Google acquires Russian ad company ZAO Begun
It looks like Google is preparing to make a push for serious growth in Russia — the search giant announced today that it’s acquiring ZAO Begun, a Russian contextual advertising service, for $140 million.
Begun is currently owned by Rambler Media, one of the largest Internet portals in Russia. The deal gives Google a real foothold in the Russian market, connecting it to a larger network of both advertisers and publishers.
Google’s press release points out that digital advertising is experiencing rapid growth in Russia. A recent Mindshare Interaction report found that Russia’s total Internet advertising market doubled to $367 million 2007, with contextual and search advertising accounting for $210 million, according to Yakov Sadchikov of the search company Quintura. Google only accounted for $10 million of that amount.
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About the Author, Anthony Ha
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.