The blocking of popular websites of Russian Mail.ru Group in Ukraine is depriving the company of millions of dollars, the company said.
According to the latest Mail.ru report published on Aug. 10, the Russian holding estimates it will lose at least $13 million in 2017 as Ukraine continues to block such popular Russian websites as VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Mail.ru on its territory.
“The blocking of our products in Ukraine during the second quarter of 2017 has had some adverse effects on the revenues and we estimate the negative effect of around 1.5 percent of total revenues in 2017,” the report reads.
Despite the loss, however, the overall financial results and users growth of the holding go up.
The company’s pro forma revenue expects to increase by at least 23 percent by the end of the year, accounting $877 million. The blocking of VKontakte in Ukraine hasn’t affected the users’ growth inside this social network either – the amount of total monthly active users is now 91 million people.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on May 16 imposing a range of sanctions on Russian companies and individuals, including Mail.ru Group, one of the Russian largest internet companies.
Ukraine’s internet providers had to cut access to the online services the company develops, including social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.
Vkontakte and Mail.ru had been among the five most popular websites in Ukraine before the ban. About 18 million Ukrainians used to visit Vkontakte daily.
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