The Center for Urban Competencies
of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) estimated the share of creative
industries in the Russian economy at 4.37% of GDP. This is significantly higher than the global
average (2.6%) and comparable to the United States (4.5%).

 
 The HSE ISSEK gave estimates separately for
Moscow, these figures are comparable to the ASI estimates: 6.3% of the Moscow
GRP.

 
 The large number of creative industries in the Russian Federation is
associated with the high level of development of IT technologies. Analysts claim
that the
concentration of creative industries in large metropolitan areas - Moscow and Saint
Petersburg -
is among the
largest urban agglomerations in Europe.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/tsentr-gorodskikh-kompetentsii-asi-dolia-kreativnykh-industrii-v-rossii-vyshe-srednemirovogo-urovnia-blagodaria-razvitiiu-it/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Kommersant

ASI Urban Competence Center: the share of creative industries in Russia is above the world average due to the development of IT

The joint venture of Mail.ru Group and Sberbank will turn Delivery Club delivery service into a “super-app in the food industry”. In order to do this, the food delivery service will be complemented with the function of booking tables in restaurants.

 
 The booking function is implemented through the Smart Reserve system. This is part of the Foodplex service, which is, like Delivery Club, a part of the O2O Holding JV.

 
 Booking in restaurants will be free until the end of the year. The company clarified that “the further interaction model will be determined in the near future”.

 
 In the next updates to the application a map will appear. Restaurants will be marked, on the map, and from these restaurants customers will be able to order takeaway dishes or book a table. The kind of cartographic service that will be used is not specified. At the same time, in June, Sberbank closed the deal to acquire a controlling stake in the 2GIS service.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/mail-ru-group-i-sberbank-sdelaiut-superapp-v-sfere-edy-na-baze-servisa-delivery-club/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Mail.ru Group and Sberbank will create a “food super-app”  based on the Delivery Club service

Experts on the peculiarities of the development and consumption of IT solutions in the field of culture and tourism

ICT.Moscow

Technologies in tourism and culture: prospects of the platforms and the impact of COVID-19

By 2024, there should be
twice more IT specialists in Russia
than there are now, <a target="_blank" href="https://tass.ru/ekonomika/9395043">according</a> to the
Ministry of Digital Development. The demand in this area is constantly growing:
according to the latest data from the Moscow DIT, the number of vacancies for
programmers in the capital has grown by 14% over the year.

 
 Today, there
are more than 6.5 thousand current vacancies available for programmers
in Moscow, analysts of DIT calculated. For the third year in a
row, Java, 1C and PHP programmers are the most demanded on the Moscow labor
market.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://hi-tech.mail.ru/news/IT-day-statistics/">Ozon</a>: IT specialists
Survey

 
 One
third of developers are self-taught, only 30% have specialized higher
education. Only 21% of IT professionals are women. The most popular profession is
a developer: 3 out of 4 respondents are programmers. 6%
of respondents called themselves testers, and a little more than 2% are engaged
in project management.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://habr.com/ru/company/habr_career/blog/516056/">Habr Career</a>: Researching
the Demand for IT Professionals in 2020

 
 In Moscow, the highest
salaries are offered to Kotlin developers,
as well as for the mobile development
languages ​​Swift, Golang and Objective-С. The situation
was nearly the same last year.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://alexstaff.agency/ru/demand-skills-2020">Alex Staff Agency</a>:
Overview of the World’s
Most In-Demand IT Skills in 2020

 
 Data Science (collection,
processing and analytics of big data). The
most popular hard skills in 2019/20
are as follows: cloud computing, AI (neural networks, ML,
etc.), UX, mobile development (Android, iOS), Data Science (collection,
processing, analytics of big data).

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jetbrains.com/ru-ru/lp/devecosystem-2020/">JetBrains</a>: Developer
ecosystem in 2020

 
 Top 5
programming languages ​​in Russia: JavaScript (62.8%), Python (46.8%), Java
(36.5%), PHP (24.5%), TypeScript (23.1%).

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/podborka-analitiki-ko-dniu-programmista/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Analytics for the Programmer’s Day in Russia

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation presented the concept of a new version of the law on the legal status of foreigners in the Russian Federation. The document will oblige foreign citizens to submit fingerprints and receive ID-cards with data about themselves and issued patents for work. The innovations will affect both migrants from visa-free countries and highly qualified workers.

 
 It is assumed that ID-cards will be similar to those offered for citizens of the Russian Federation in 2019. They bear the name and surname, year and place of birth of the owner, his holographic photograph, QR code, card number. The integrated chip will store information about the driver's license, SNILS and TIN. Foreigners' ID cards will also store information on issued patents for work.

 
 All the necessary documents, as conceived by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, foreigners will be able to receive through the portal of state services, like citizens of the Russian Federation.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/mvd-predlagaet-vydavat-inostrantsam-elektronnye-id-karty/">Original (in Russian)</a>

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation proposes to issue electronic ID-cards to foreigners

Azbuka Vkusa, Russian chain of high-end grocery stores, invested $443 thousand in Biolink.Tech, UK-registered developer of the Otri app, which provides nutritional advice based on the user's medical analyzes. Azbuka Vkusa became a minority shareholder of Biolink.Tech with a 4.49% share and has integrated grocery delivery from its stores into the Otri app.

 
 Biolink.Tech will use the funds raised from the retailer for marketing, product development and expansion of the technical team. The company also plans to further develop its app through an artificial intelligence-based product recognition tool. 

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/azbuka-vkusa-investirovala-okolo-33-2-mln-rub-v-startap-biolink-tech/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Azbuka Vkusa, Russian chain of high-end grocery stores, invested $443 thousand in Biolink.Tech

To modernize the network in Moscow, Russian telecom operator MTS will purchase 5G-ready equipment from the Chinese company Huawei.

 
 MTS did not disclose the purchase price. According to Kommersant, investments in the project will amount to&nbsp;$100 million. Previously, MTS cooperated with the Finnish telecom equipment manufacturer Nokia in the Moscow region.

 
 The company notes that the renewal of the network in Moscow and the region will increase the throughput at least three times. Over the past three years, the operator has noted an annual growth in the volume of mobile Internet traffic in the MTS network of the capital region by more than 65%.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/mts-potratit-7-5-mlrd-rub-na-zakupku-5g-ready-oborudovaniia-u-huawei/">Original (in Russian)</a>

MTS will spend $100 million to purchase of 5G-ready equipment from Huawei

Moscow-based Cognitive Pilot will develop a computer vision system for trams operated by the Chinese railway operator FITSCO. The first phase of the project is to develop and implement an AI-based Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS).

 
 The system will automatically adjust the speed and react to obstacles when there is no action from the driver. In the future, the companies expect to create a fully autonomous tram prototype. 

 
 Cognitive Pilot and FITSCO also plan to jointly engage in research and development in this area. They expect the partnership to accelerate the development of AI solutions and make it more cost-effective.&nbsp;&nbsp;

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/cognitive-pilot-razrabotaet-sistemu-kompiuternogo-zreniia-dlia-tramvaev-kitaiskogo-zh-d-operatora/">Original (in Russian)</a>

CNews

Cognitive Pilot to develop computer vision system for trams operated by Chinese railway operator

The State Atomic
Energy Corporation Rosatom proposed to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Chernyshenko to consolidate federal funding for the development of smart cities
within the framework of a single program. According to the newspaper, the
proposal was voiced by the general director of Rusatom Infrastructure Solutions
(RIR, part of Rosatom) Ksenia Sukhotina during a closed meeting on August 29 in
Sarov.

 
 The RIR company
does not claim to be the only supplier for such a project, the newspaper notes,
while it is ready to introduce a digital platform based on the Internet of
Things in cities.

 
 Other large structures are also involved in the digitalization of cities and the development of IoT in them. Earlier it was announced that Rostelecom plans to become the operator of the new Digital City project (its implementation was estimated at $1,3 billion). Rostelecom is also a partner of the Ministry of Construction in the Digital Region project (estimated at $1,8 billion).

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/rosatom-predlozhil-konsolidirovat-finansirovanie-razvitiia-umnykh-gorodov-v-ramkakh-edinoi-programmy/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Rosatom proposed to consolidate financing for the development of smart cities within the framework of a single program

The Antidron system is being developed at Kaspersky Lab. General Director of the company Evgeny Kaspersky spoke about this in an interview with Izvestia newspaper.

 
 According to him, the system will allow detecting drones that fly up to the object. Depending on which model the drone is, the system can either land it, send it back, or stun it.

 
 As explained by Kaspersky, this is necessary at sporting events, at airports, and may also be in demand by private business.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/laboratoriia-kasperskogo-sozdaet-sistemu-antidron/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Izvestia

Kaspersky Lab develops the Antidron system

Yandex plans to release a set-top box with support for its own media platform. This was reported by the Kommersant newspaper with reference to its own sources in the telecommunications market. 

 
 The company also registered a new version of the Yandex.Station smart speaker with a voice assistant, which can run on Android and Linux operating systems (OS). Yandex did not comment on its plans.

 
 In May 2019, Yandex released a media player with the ability to connect to TVs - Yandex.Module, which had voice control via Alice. According to the company, the produced batch of the device was sold out.

 
 Sberbank already has its own TV set-top box with voice control. It was presented by the subsidiary company SberDevices in February 2020.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/iandeks-sobiraetsia-vypustit-sobstvennuiu-tv-pristavku-s-golosovym-pomoshchnikom-alisa/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Yandex will release its own TV set-top box with Alice voice assistant

By the end of 2020, the Bank of Russia will launch a platform for receiving financial services remotely and comparing of the cost of services. More than 10 partner banks will soon connect to the marketplace.

 
 The marketplace will allow Russians to arrange financial products without visiting the offices of banks and other financial organizations. It will work through aggregator showcases of already existing portals, including Banki.ru and Sravni.ru. Banki.ru is ready for the launch of the all-Russian marketplace on October 1, Sravni.ru also maintains a high degree of readiness for the launch of the project.

 
 In the coming month, the marketplace will be launched in test mode for a limited number of users in two dozen regions. In the future the marketplace will be supplemented with investment, credit and insurance products. 

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/tsb-rf-do-kontsa-2020-goda-zapustit-pervyi-v-rossii-finansovyi-marketpleis/">Original (in Russian)</a>

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation will launch the first financial marketplace in Russia by the end of 2020

ITMO University scientists won an international competition to create AI for diagnosing inflammatory disorders.

 
 The participants had to create an optimal machine learning algorithm to accurately determine what kind of inflammatory bowel disease a patient has based on the results of non-invasive diagnosis.

 
 The team from Russia became the only one to win in two categories of the competition. In total, the organizers of the competition received 81 applications from 15 scientific teams from different countries.

futurerussia.gov.ru

ITMO University scientists won an international competition to create AI for diagnosing inflammatory disorders

O2O, the joint venture of Mail.ru Group and Sberbank, acquired 84.7% of the express delivery service for ready meals Local Kitchen. The founders of the service will retain the remaining shares.

 
 The deal will be closed by the end of the fourth quarter of 2020. The deal value is not disclosed.

 
 The service will be integrated into the ecosystems of Mail.ru Group and Sberbank: users will be able to log in via VK Connect or Sberbank ID. The mini-application of Local Kitchen is already available for VKontakte users.

 
 Local Kitchen uses a proprietary IT system to manage company processes, accurately forecast demand, and plan product delivery. After the integration of Local Kitchen into the ecosystems of Mail.ru Group and Sberbank, the companies will be able to exchange technologies to improve all O2O products.

<hr />
 
 In May it was&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/kukhnia-na-raione-privlekla-investitsii-ot-sp-sberbanka-i-mail-ru-group/">reported</a> that a part of the shares of the co-founders of the service Oleg Kozyrev and Alexey Kolesnikov in the authorized capital of the company was pledged to the joint venture O2O. The terms for the return of the pledge are “complete performance of any obligations” of the legal entity of the service, Loсalkitchen LLC, to O2O under a loan agreement for an amount of up to 290 million rubles, as stated in the extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities dated May 12, 2020. At that time, 15% of the shares of each Kozyrev and Kolesnikov were in pledge.

 
 As of May 2020, Kozyrev and Kolesnikov each had 23.6% in Local Kitchen. The largest owner of the service with a 25.8% share was PIK-Investproekt.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/sp-mail-ru-group-i-sberbanka-poluchilo-kontrol-v-kukhne-na-raione/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Vedomosti

Joint venture of Mail.ru Group and Sberbank took control of Local Kitchen

The NLab Marker service is used to label audio data, texts, images, videos. The capabilities of the platform are as follows:

<ul>
 <li>automatic check of data labeling specialists;</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>formation of datasets based on recorded audio;</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>labeling of categories and entities;</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>image labeling.</li>
</ul>

<div class="incut-block ">
 
 Our team has developed NLab Marker for ourselves. But now we are ready to offer this product to the market, as there is demand for industrial data labeling platforms that allow to implement any labeling tasks and independently administer this process for companies with well-developed Data Science departments.
 
 <div class="quote-owner">
 <div>
 
 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ashmanov" target="_blank">
 Stanislav Ashmanov
 </a>
 
 CEO of Nanosemantics
 </div>
 </div>
</div>

Skolkovo

Nanosemantics launched a data labeling platform for machine learning

Three Russian IT projects became the winners of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/stocktaking/Prizes/2020">2020 UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes contest</a>. 

 
 Awards were received by:

<ul>
 <li>Rostelecom - in the Access to Information and Knowledge category for the educational project for the elderly and people with disabilities “Alphabet of the Internet”;</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia - in the Electronic-government category for the public services quality monitoring system “Your control”;</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>&nbsp;“System” LLC (Ekaterinburg) - in the E-Education category for the creation of the first international cyber school of the future for the new IT generation KIBERone.</li>
</ul>

 
 A total of 800 applications were received for the 2020 WSIS Prizes. During online voting 354 projects were selected, and five winners were selected in each of the 18 categories of the contest.

 
 WSIS Prizes is an international contest in the field of information and communication technologies, which implements the activities of the World Summit on the Information Society. The purpose of the competition is to find the world’s best ICT practices.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/tri-rossiiskikh-it-proekta-poluchili-nagrady-mezhdunarodnoi-premii-initsiirovannoi-oon/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation

Three Russian IT Projects Received UN-Initiated International Awards

Celsus service developed by the Russian company "Medical Screening Systems",
became the first program based on artificial intelligence technologies included
in the Russian Software Register.&nbsp;

 
 The
solution is used in mammography, fluorography, histology and computed
tomography of the lungs. It analyzes digital medical images and identifies
pathological changes on them. The use of artificial intelligence reduces the
time spent on research and reduces the risk of not noticing pathology.

 
 Celsus participates in the experiment of the Moscow Department of Health on the use of
AI services. As part of this experiment, the solution has already processed
more than 60 thousand mammograms and fluorograms.

 
 <a href="https://ict.moscow/news/ii-servis-dlia-analiza-meditsinskikh-izobrazhenii-vkliuchen-v-reestr-otechestvennogo-po/" target="_blank">Original (in Russian)</a>

ComNews

AI-based medical imaging service Celsus is included in the Russian Software Register

HSE (Higher School of Economics)

Moscow ranked 4th in terms of the readiness of its urban digital infrastructure for the pandemic

According to the plan,
the equipment will not be purchased from foreign companies. The technologies will be developed at the facilities of Rostec subsidiaries.

 
 The
document states that investments should help to increase the export value of Russian next-generation microelectronics to&nbsp;$263 million by 2024, and to $683 million by 2030. The
domestic market for solutions based on new generations of microelectronics by
2024 should amount to $6 billion.

 
 This
will require an investment of $8 billion from public funds and&nbsp; $1.3 billion from extra-budgetary funds
(Rostec is ready to invest $394 million). According to the document,
Rostec together with Rosatom will be
responsible for the implementation of the program.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/rostekh-razrabotal-dorozhnuiu-kartu-razvitiia-otrasli-mikroelektroniki-trebuiushchuiu-pochti-800-mlrd-rublei/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Rostec prepared a roadmap for the development of the microelectronics that requires almost $10.5 billion

Anton Gorelkin, a member
of the Russian State Duma Committee on Information Policy, made a request to the Federal Antimonopoly Service to conduct a
check of the situation with hindered access of Russian application developers to the Apple operating environment in terms
of abuse of monopoly position in the Russian market.

 
 The deputy claims that
Russian developers have contacted him several times with complaints that they cannot register a developer account in the
Apple system, without which applications cannot appear on the App Store. To confirm the identity, Apple asks
for the billing address from the bank through which the developer will pay for the account, but the data format
provided by Russian banks does not meet the corporation’s requirements, and there is no
connection to the system. As a
result, Russian developers have to
purchase accounts registered in the United States and China on the black
market.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/posle-zhalob-rossiiskikh-razrabotchikov-deputat-gosdumy-prosit-fas-proverit-diskriminatsionnost-dostupa-k-app-store/">Original (in Russian)</a>

After receiving complaints from Russian developers, a State Duma deputy asks the FAS to check the discriminatory nature of access to the App Store

A network of centers, from which unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be launched and monitored, will be created in Russia. The project was approved by the Aeronet working group of the National Technology Initiative. Within 5-6 years, such centers can appear across the country; investments in the first three will amount to 50 million rubles.

 
 Customers will have access to the UAVs via a sharing service using a mobile application.

 
 The logistics center will include a landing site and facilities for performing routine maintenance and for the local data center.

 
 Experts say this is a promising project, but they also warn that legislative restrictions and security issues may become a barrier.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/v-rossii-sozdadut-set-servisno-logisticheskikh-tsentrov-dlia-bpla-dostupnykh-po-sheringovoi-modeli/">Original (in Russian)</a>

A network of service and logistics centers for UAVs, available via sharing service, will be created in Russia

A few hours after Yandex, Sberbank announced&nbsp;setting up of Sber Automotive Technologies subsidiary. Сompany plans to spin off its SberDigitalAuto department, created in April 2019, into a subsidiary of Sber Automotive Technologies (SberAutoTech).

 
 Main goals:

<ul>
 <li>creation of a new platform for autonomous vehicles;</li>
</ul>

<ul>
 <li>creation of an automotive operating system (OS), which includes the company's products and services.</li>
</ul>

 
 Sberbank plans to release the first self-driving cars on public roads in late 2020 - early 2021. In 2021, test operation of solutions based on its own automotive OS will begin.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/sberbank-obiavil-o-sozdanii-kompanii-sber-automotive-technologies/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Sberbank

Sberbank announced the creation of a subsidiary company Sber Automotive Technologies

Yandex is restructuring the Yandex.Taxi group: it separates the direction of self-driving vehicles from it into a separate company Yandex Self-Driving Group, in which it will receive 73% shares, and Uber - 19%. The rest of the shares will go to a motivation program for employees.

 
 At the same time, a car-sharing business will join Yandex.Taxi, as a result, Yandex's share in the group will grow from 58.2% to 61.7%. The company will invest another $150 million in self-driving, where Yandex has already invested $65 million in three years.

 
 In August, it became known that the tests of cars without a driver were&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/en/news/self-driving-car-testing-is-postponed-until-2021/">postponed</a> from the end of 2020 to 2021.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/iandeks-vydeliaet-napravlenie-bespilotnykh-avtomobilei-v-otdelnuiu-kompaniiu/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Yandex creates a separate company for the self-driving vehicles and invests $150 mln

Russian retail chains have recorded growth in sales of smartphones with electronic SIM cards. According to “M.Video - Eldorado”, since the beginning of the year the demand for eSIM smartphones on the Russian market has grown 2.8 times, and in August the sales increased 3.5 times.

 
 According to the statistics of “Svyaznoy”, from January to August the sales of smartphones with eSIM increased compared with the same period last year by 178% in kind and 158% in monetary terms.

 
 VimpelCom claims there is a growing interest in eSIM among Russians: in seven months of 2020, the operator sold almost as many such smartphones as in the whole 2019.

 
 At the end of June, simultaneously with Vimpelcom, Megafon started to connect subscribers using eSIM. Previously this technology was launched by Tinkoff Mobile.

 
 <a target="_blank" href="https://ict.moscow/news/v-rossii-rastut-prodazhi-smartfonov-s-esim/">Original (in Russian)</a>

Market in Brief