Did not look - and don't

Large -scale dismissals begin in Rutube, writes Frank Media with reference to its sources

Alexander Zharov, the head of Gazprom-Media, claims that the holding has long planned to combine his video assets. It would seem that the situation obliges to experience certain emotions. But what if you forget about politics and look at it from the point of view of business?

Gazprom-Media is a large quasi-state market player. Of the companies comparable in size, only the “National Media Group” Kovalchuk. Which is technically private, but ... everyone understands everything.

The “daughter” of Gazprom has a set of media assets at 360 degrees: television channels, radio stations, printed press, online services ... And all this farm has been led by the former head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov. “All” is a keyword. The financial indicators of the holding are the amount of assessment of various assets. Some can be quite profitable, but some deeply not quite. In any case, the task of the general director is to at least somehow display this farm in a plus.

How do you usually optimize such companies? For example, part of them is simply pointless to touch. If you take TV channels, then between NTV, “Friday” and some “Match TV”-nothing in common. You can’t even put them in one office to save on rent - too different structures and activities. Or the company's company. Central Partnership - film asterister, Good Story Media and Comedy Club Production - shopping result. Here, on a superficial look, there is also nothing to optimize.

Plus, no matter how unfair the formation of the market was - there is still an endless process of mergers, acquisitions and alienations. This is that if you integrate the company today, then when you want to sell, you will have to tease with meat.

So it is with the rest of the assets. Where can I save here? Well, they relocated everyone to their building, well, they made a common accounting. The rest of the activity is not glued in any way. The maximum that is possible is to start the central sales house that will sell advertising. But he is already. What remains? That's right, Internet services. All these numerous servers, development, etc. eat grandmas no worse than television channels, and even pleasant circumstances in the form of blocking competitors do not save the situation.

Here, after all, how it turns out! Despite the locks, the advertiser still goes to YouTube and all kinds of prohibited services. This is logical. The solvent audience is slightly smarter, under certain conditions and not to refuse the usual media consumption, where there was always little space for Russian services. And here is a direct correlation between the level of education and an understanding of reality. Well, blocked. And the remaining services are still bad. Plankh-Hi: what according to statistics, what is according to the advisory algorithims, what in censorship.

But in addition to Rutube, there is also a Premiere online cinema. And the Yappy service is something like Tik-Toka. The first is like a bottomless barrel; The influx of visitors who want to see pirate content forces the company to increase power. The second is also not in vacuum. The competition among platforms, which used to be considered legal, is only aggravated. Yes, and Yappy in the local market also has analogues. And it seems that it is here that there is some kind of field for optimization.

Without internal corporate documents, you can only fantasize, but, most likely, it is close to reality: three large groups are engaged in the same.

• Both there and there-a data center and consumption for servers.

• Both there and there - programmers who, it would seem, are concerned about the same: how to show the video to the user.

• And there are also own sites of television channels, there is the same “match” with a bunch of various content. And there - the same thing: their servers, their programmers.

So it can be assumed that Zharov, as a person, albeit from the not better side close to the Internet, decided to focus on optimizing it.

And by the way, talking about this has been going on for a long time. News about Rutube-on the verge of eternal, they are constantly trying to reduce something there. And, oddly enough, this is the rare case when dry messages from press releases in the spirit: “This is a long-planned restructuring,” can be believed. Dismissal in the company is a logical and planned process, in the depths of its nothing to do with politics. This is why they changed the leadership and took a new general director in the person of the former head of Roskomnadzor. But we still haven’t talked about VK, and there Gazprom also has a share. And there is the same endless hole that is ready to absorb any budgets with great appetite.

In reality visible to the final user, everything is no less sad than inside. Rutube has not become a national service. Those who make content have a million fair claims to local services, the main of which is no one even close to the algorithms similar to YouTube. So, the chance to hook the new audience is close to zero. The same with VK. Income, views and so on - the cat cried. Yes, and it is difficult to look at the structure without tears: data quality, advertising rooms, statistics - everything is inferior to the indicators of senior comrades.

You can continue to juggle with facts and arguments for a long time. In addition, there is also an external situation, there is simply the current economic situation. Caravan of trucks with money for popular bloggers is not eternal. And once again it does not lead to any results. The audience still does not want to use local services. Endless subsidies, subsidies and budget infusions also have their own restrictions. There, even without Gazprom, the line is growing, and the head company, which is the “Home of Russia”, also experiences its difficulties. Where do not look - everywhere is not easy.

The best national video hosting is preferably not one, a messenger, social networks and other digital scrapers. The task is more than noble, about the development of IT infrastructure is dreamed of about all countries. But there is one nuance:

All this is impossible in the conditions of “technical stagnation”, sanctions, prohibitions, restrictions and, to put it mildly, a difficult political situation. To realize such high goals, Russia has no resources. Neither human, nor technical, nor financial.

Regardless of our personal addictions and external political showdowns within all Russian companies close to the state and accustomed to exist in the conditions of an unfair market, the same processes are underway. It is necessary to preserve the face and draw an air castle with which one could go for some subsidies and additional injections, and also fulfill the requirements of the shareholders-no matter what happened there, and the business, even in such perverted conditions, still remains a business. I. Of course, in addition to complex optimization processes, the simplest solution remains on the surface - to dismiss.

Russian Internet space does not exist in vacuum, there are external circumstances that, alas, have to obey. In 2024, Gazprom-Media's net loss amounted to 247 million rubles with revenue of 163 billion. So in the foreseeable future we will only have to hope for the beautiful: we will definitely make a miracle, but so far we need to tighten our belts.