State-owned banking giant mulls purchase of cartography service

26 August 2019

Sberbank, Russia’s largest savings bank, may acquire a stake in another large-scale company in the Russian-language segment of the Internet. The government-owned bank was reported by RBC to be negotiating terms for the purchase of 2GIS, a very popular Russian cartographic service.

Sberbank already co-owns Rambler Group and partners with Yandex and Mail.Ru Group, the largest Internet players in Russia.

Mediascope analysts placed 2GIS among the 10 largest IT holding companies in the Russian-language Internet. In June 2019, its monthly all-Russian audience on desktops and mobile gadgets reached 19.7 million users in big cities alone. For all projects launched by Sberbank itself, this KPI was 35.4 million. According to 2GIS’ own reports, in July the app opened on 49.3 million devices.

As of early 2019, Forbes valued 2GIS at $243m, which made the company number eight by Internet asset capitalization in Russia. Last year, Apple included 2GIS data in its standard Maps app.

The service has been developed by Dublgis based in Novosibirsk, in Siberia. The developer registered as a legal entity back in 2004.

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