Russian internet company Mail.ru Group has announced the rebranding of the group as VK. It said this the natural progression of the group's ecosystem development strategy, announced in 2020 when the social network VKontakte was positioned as the central element. The VK brand has 100 percent awareness among the domestic internet audience, it said, and VKontakte is used by nearly 70 percent of domestic internet users on a daily basis.
The group claims that after the launch of the ecosystem development strategy, it has made significant progress, with active roll-out of various core ecosystem elements, such as VK ID, VK Combo, VK Mini Apps and VK Pay, all launched under the "VK" brand. After extensive brand analysis over the past fourteen months together with Saffron Brand Consultants, and after test rebranding of products and units in association with VK (e.g. VK Classifieds, VK Rabota), the group says the VK brand clearly has positive effects on awareness and usage, which it wants to scale across the group.
The rebranding seeks to maximise association of nearly 200 products with the broader group, too. Any new internal products will be launched under the VK brand, with decisions about branding acquired services, partially owned services or services focused on international markets to be made by the internal Branding Committee, based on analytics and the best outcome for the group and all stakeholders.
The rebranding will not affect the operational structure of the business, accounting or presentation of results. Its legal entity name and ticker are expected to be amended, but with no immediate effect. The company will given an update on these items in due course.
