Russia’s largest media holding company, Gazprom-Media is all set to launch an application similar to the Chinese video-sharing social networking service TikTok.
According to the reports, the group CEO Alexander Zharov informed that the media company has acquired a service called “Ya Molodets” (“I am great”), to initiate the social media platform.
Mr. Zharov said that the app has been developed with the help of the Innopraktika Foundation, an organization managed by Katerina Tikhonova, one of the alleged daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Gazprom-Media will use the project’s software to speed up the creation of a new video service for Russian bloggers,” Zharov said, adding that it will launch within two years. The application will allow the sharing of short vertical videos, just like the Chinese application.
Earlier this month, Zharov revealed that Gazprom-Media would launch two YouTube-like websites within the next two years, with one being an updated version of the Rutube streaming service, a Russian-speaking platform acquired by Gazprom-Media in 2008.
Mr. Zharov said, “The company has been working for about a year to modernize it and make it better than YouTube in terms of tools.”
Gazprom-Media
Gazprom-Media Holding is a leading media company, which was established in 2000 as a subsidiary of Gazprom, a large Russian company founded in 1989, which carries on the business of extraction, production, transport, and sale of natural gas.
The media company owns and operates a large portfolio of renowned news and entertainment television brands, radio and print press assets, online resources, along with film production and advertising companies. The company intends to strengthen its business model to make it more adaptable to the structural changes in the media market.
