The state search system “Sputnik”, created for $ 20 million, is on the verge of closing.

Unfortunately, the "Sputnik" did not take off

On Geektimes, they wrote more than once about the search engine “Sputnik” , which a few years ago launched “Rostelecom”. This state search engine began operating in 2014, but in three years it never became popular. Despite the fact that Sputnik is focused on the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet, it does not occupy even 1% of the search market. While conversions from Google and Yandex to other sites are estimated at billions, Sputnik has only a little more than 100 thousand. As a result, the project will either be closed or repurpose, a decision on this issue has not yet been made, write Vedomosti .

"Sputnik" can reorient to work with big data. With the words of the interlocutors of “Vedomosti”, this is one of the scenarios for the development of events, yet there is no exact understanding of how to reorient the system. On the other hand, this search service is unlikely to be closed - its creators will not decide on this, since “Sputnik” was positioned as a national scale resource.

Mikhail Oseevsky, the new president of Rostelecom, will think about what to do with Sputnik. Now he is studying the general situation and will soon have to decide on a national search engine. The value of Sputnik, according to experts, is its own technologies, machine learning algorithms and the ability to work with Big Data. “It will be necessary to make adjustments that correspond to reality,” said Andrei Polyakov, a representative of Rostelecom, commenting on the possibility of reprofiling the resource. “The company wants to increase efficiency and reduce costs. For this, a search is underway for a new economic and market model due to the changed situation in the market and in the economy. ”
')
Usually search engines earn on advertising, but Sputnik does not sell advertising. He makes money on the other: the creators of the search engine have contracts that are associated with public services and the calculation of big data. For example, in 2015, the revenue of the resource amounted to 136.6 million rubles, the loss - 150.5 million rubles.

Initially, KM Media was involved in the development of Sputnik, which the operator himself later bought out. Currently, 74.99% of Sputnik belongs to several subsidiaries of the state-owned company Rostelecom: RTKomm.ru and Rostelecom International Limited.

The initial investment in the project amounted to $ 20 million. Probably there were other investments, but they were not disclosed by Rostelecom. They decided to create a service so that it could become an access point to the digital infrastructure of the society and the state. ” To this end, several services have been added to the search engine's functionality to help users find official information, the state service, and the address of government agencies. Also, the developers were going to integrate “Sputnik” with payment systems and technologies. This was never done, but the search engine has its own browser.