Kommersant.com announced yesterday that MSN will be taking aim at yet another market. This time, they are focused on Russia. According to the article, the content for MSN Russia will be provided by Kommersant, Reuters, and the AP. Geoff Sutton, MSN General Manager for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa said that they expect MSN Russia to be the fourth largest player in Russia's advertising market within a few years. I am actually surprised that MSN has waited this long to venture into Russia with their portal. Russia is a big market and they have been actively pursuing it with ventures in Windows Live. As you may remember, back in July of last year, Windows Live launched a Russian promotional site. Also, Windows Live Mail is being offered in Russian, so that shows a commitment already to this market.
I think it's going to be really interesting to see how Russia takes to MSN and where they stand over there a couple of years from now. If they hit it big over there, it could be a huge score for MSN and maybe we'll see them start to expand to even more markets like this over time.