Former head of cryptocurrency exchange Wex detained in Poland, passengers will be able to check in their luggage themselves: the main thing is October 21

World

• In Warsaw, the former owner of the Wex cryptocurrency exchange, Dmitry Vasiliev, was detained on a US arrest warrant. The extradition process has already begun against him.
• The WSJ has learned that Perplexity, a startup that has developed an artificial intelligence search engine, aims to raise about $500 million, which would increase the company’s valuation to $8 billion or more.
• Average audience reach for long-form videos on YouTube is approaching 2023 levels, despite a slowdown in video sharing. Short horizontal videos (Shorts), aimed at young people, have become even less viewed.
• Nuclear energy stocks hit record highs amid reports of major deals with Amazon and Google.
• The American stock exchange NASDAQ began trading shares of the former parent company of Yandex. At the moment, the share price decreased by 24.93%, to $14.25. This figure was reached at 16:30, the securities are sold under the symbol NBIS. As of 5:18 p.m., shares had risen to $16.64.

Russia

• The slowdown of YouTube, quadrobers, furries and the divorce of singer Shaman are among the top 10 reasons that worry Russians, according to a study by the communication company Kros.
• During the nine months of 2024, authorities spent 6.8 million rubles on government purchases of iPhones, up from 1.6 million rubles in the same period of 2023. Apple’s largest smartphone purchase, worth more of 3 million rubles, was carried out by St. Petersburg Teploenergo.
• The Russian Ministry of Education plans to add Arabic to the Unified State Exam as a sixth optional exam. This statement was made by the head of the Ministry of Education, Sergei Kravtsov.
• The head of the Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs of the State Duma, Yaroslav Nilov, has prepared a bill proposing to reduce the minimum period of ownership of an apartment for exemption from property tax from five to three years. personal income when selling it.
• In 2024, the Ministry of Finance used artificial intelligence (AI) for the first time in the budget process. The neural network was developed in collaboration with Sber.

Finance

• The Central Bank proposed to the Ministry of Finance to amend the legislation to oblige banks to use only the universal QR code of the National Payment Card System (NPC) to pay for goods and services. The introduction of the tool, among other things, “will make it possible to minimize the costs that the connection of various payment instruments entails for banks and commercial companies,” the regulator considers.

Business

• The Russian social media marketing market will increase by 35% by the end of 2024, reaching 65.4 billion rubles. This is the only segment of digital advertising where growth rates are not expected to slow by the end of this year.
• In July-September 2024, the number of vacancies for job seekers aged 16 to 18 increased sharply, especially in retail and catering. Previously, hiring these types of employees was rare, but now it has become necessary due to staff shortages.

• The most popular products for quadrobers and quadrobics in the Russian markets in the third quarter of 2024 were blanks for cat masks. Sales of some items exceeded 8-10 thousand units, as reported by RB.RU in the Moneyplace analytical service (part of the Kontur ecosystem).

• The Russian social media marketing (SMM) market will increase by 35% by the end of 2024, reaching 65.4 billion rubles.
• Experts warn that by the New Year the prices of laptops and other equipment will increase by 10% to 15%. Among the reasons are rising component prices on the global market, as well as difficulties with cross-border payments and logistics.
• The Budget and Tax Committee of the State Duma approved a government amendment that increases the excise tax on soft drinks containing sugar from 7 to 10 rubles per liter.
• Fish processors are massively informing retail chains about the increase in wholesale prices for seafood, by an average of 15-20%. The reasons for the price increase are said to be the increase in costs and the cost of raw materials. In particular, shrimp prices were affected by the drought in Ecuador and Super Typhoon Yagi.
• Wildberries co-founder and owner of its 1%, Vladislav Bakalchuk, saw no reason to transfer the marketplace warehouse developer VB Development to Tatyana Kim. The businessman stated that the only participant in this company since 2010 is himself.
• One of the largest Russian manufacturers of chips and microcircuits, Silicon El, stopped operating due to a drone attack in the Bryansk region on the night of October 19. The company said the drones disrupted power supplies and caused damage to special energy facilities.

Transport

• The Association of International Airports proposed establishing the possibility of self-check-in and baggage delivery at Russian airports. This will allow passengers who check-in online to avoid queues at check-in counters and check in their luggage themselves.

Services and technologies

• The activities of “white” hackers will be legalized and will become part of the state infrastructure for checking information security. Companies that fail to identify and fix vulnerabilities are subject to fines.
• Since the beginning of 2024, 286 million phone numbers and 96 million email addresses have appeared on the Internet. This figure is double that of the same period last year.
• The activities of “white” hackers, who, with the permission of the owners of the systems, search for vulnerabilities in their protection, will be legalized and will become part of the state infrastructure for checking the security of information. The corresponding bill has been prepared in the Federation Council.
• Roskomnadzor responded to the possibility of blocking the Twitch streaming platform, popular among gamers. The department said it has not blocked the service and does not plan to do so.
• In Russia, Viber did not work properly; The problems began on the morning of October 21. Users have complained about problems downloading the app and sending messages.

• Xiaomi has created its own processor for smartphones using a 3nm chip. The first rumors about the development of our own processor appeared seven years ago, and now they may come true.