Swedish company to launch online auction in Russia

Swedish Kontakt East Holding (KEH) plans to enter Russian online shopping market, in addition to its Yellow Pages Russia directory service. The company will spend up to $13 mln to launch an online auction. According to KEH's CEO Filip Engelbert they wouldn't buy any existing business, like Molotok.ru, for it's too expensive, $3-5 mln. Last year Russian online stores earned $2,5 bln which showing 150% year growth. The segment chosen by KEH seems weird though, for Internet users in Russia never showed much enthusiasm about auctioning online. Only 13% of them have ever tried it, according to recent Gemius study.