Free telephone number of the unified federal hotline Megafon
A single federal hotline number allows the company’s clients to call the call center service from anywhere in Russia . Moreover, you can contact specialists even with a negative balance.
Megafon free hotline: 8 800 550 05 00.
Calls are absolutely free from landline and mobile phones of any operators.
The telecom operator's help desk provides customer support for any questions that arise. By calling the hotline, subscribers can consult on the company’s services and tariffs, check the balance, find out the required amount of payment for services and the conditions for connecting to certain tariff plans.
The Megafon operator support number operates 24/7, without weekends or holidays. This means that clients can receive the necessary assistance at any time convenient for them. To solve the problem, just call Megafon support service on the required line and tell a specialist about your problem.
How to call support from a landline phone
You can call Megafon operator from a landline number using a single hotline number: 8 800 550 05 00.
In Russia, calls will not cost the caller a penny. In Russian regions, additional customer support centers of the company may operate, calls to which are free only for Megafon subscribers in this region.
How to contact an operator directly without an answering machine
In order to call a live operator, you should use the voice menu of the service. To do this you need to call:
- 8;
- 0500.
After connecting, follow the service commands. The voice menu support system may change from time to time, but in any case it will lead to the goal if done correctly.
Alexey Trotsyuk and Vasily Bolshakov were appointed top managers of MegaFon
Left: Alexey Trotsyuk. Right: Vasily Bolshakov
MegaFon announced new appointments to top management. Vasily Bolshakov became director of marketing communications. The company has also created the position of creative director, filled by screenwriter and producer of the Start video service Alexey Trotsyuk, a company representative told Sostav.
Former vice president of marketing at Eldorado Vasily Bolshakov replaced director of brand and marketing communications Yulia Koneva, who decided to leave the company - she took up the post in June last year. Prior to this, Koneva worked as director of strategic marketing and integrated communications at VimpelCom (Beeline brand).
Bolshakov will focus on developing the brand, and his first project will be the launch of an updated creative framework. Alexey Trotsyuk will work with him on the new advertising campaign.
Vasily Bolshakov, director of marketing communications at MegaFon:
MegaFon's plans include changes in brand positioning, and I am especially interested in joining the team when we face such an ambitious challenge. In August, we will launch an updated creative framework and advertising campaign, which will be noticeably different from previous communication formats.
Alexey Trotsyuk, creative director of MegaFon:
Our immediate plans are a rare opportunity to realize creative ideas without being limited by standard approaches to advertising inherent in corporations. MegaFon is ready to deviate from traditional advertising formats in favor of producing high-quality and modern content. This approach is close to me, I am glad to join the team and look forward to August, when we will be able to present the first results of our joint work.
Vlad Volfson, commercial director of MegaFon:
I am pleased to introduce the updated team of MegaFon’s commercial block. In the spring, Oleg Telyukov, who over the previous two years as CEO of Yota showed unique results, moved to the position of Director of Sales and Service. In June, the B2C product development direction was headed by Dmitry Rudskikh. This team has all the competencies and healthy ambitions to make the best product on the market that meets all the current needs of subscribers.
Vasily and Alexey’s task is to convey to subscribers the benefits of MegaFon. I am confident that Vasily Bolshakov’s vast experience in communications, together with Alexey Trotsyuk’s capabilities in creating high-quality content, will once again help distinguish our brand in the market and take interaction with the audience to a new level.
Since 2015, Vasily Bolshakov has worked at Eldorado, and in 2021 he was appointed vice president of marketing. Before that, he led marketing at VTB and Leto Bank (owned by VTB), worked as a project director at MTS and as an advertising director at S7 Airlines.
Alexey Trotsyuk is the general producer and co-founder of the Start video service, co-owner of the Yellow, Black & White company. He was the general producer of the Super TV channel, worked as a screenwriter at the Ren TV channel, and as a screenwriter and creative producer at STS.
How to call or send SMS to Megafon from a computer online
The company's official website has a free service for sending messages to Megafon clients https://moscow.megafon.ru/help/info/message/ . Only operator subscribers can send SMS.
To use the service, you must enter your valid number and then go through the confirmation procedure, for which you will have to use the code received on your mobile device. The phone number of the message recipient is also entered.
Online support service is completely free. The SMS message itself will be sent on behalf of the specified number.
Megafon will completely change its board of directors
In total, the list included 9 candidates for 9 places, including 2 independent directors and 2 candidates from Gazprombank (at the end of October, the Telia Company holding, which was at the forefront of the creation of Megafon, announced that it was finally withdrawing from the capital of the mobile operator and selling its 19 % stake in GPB for 60.4 billion rubles).
The remaining candidates represent the interests of Megafon's main shareholder - the USM group Alisher Usmanov and his partners.
“New challenges associated with tougher competition and the need for technological transformation of Megafon require changes in the management structure and greater involvement of the controlling shareholder in the company’s work. The current composition of the board of directors saw one of its main goals as developing a new long-term strategy for the company, which was approved this year. The updated composition of the board of directors will focus on implementing the strategy and increasing the company's operational efficiency. Based on the new goals, candidates for the board of directors from USM were selected,” Megafon commented.
From the main shareholder of USM, the head of the directorate for development and management of telecommunication assets of UeSem Management LLC Maxim Anipkin, deputy general director for economics and finance of UeSeM Management LLC Evgeny Bystrykh, director for management of telecommunications infrastructure projects of UeSeM Management LLC Alexander Yesikov were nominated to the board , managing director, head of the investment and analytical directorate of UeSem Management LLC Pavel Kaplun and managing director for strategy and organizational development of Megafon Natalya Chumachenko (until 2016 she was the first deputy general director of USM Advisors).
Representing Gazprombank are the General Director of Gazprombank - Asset Management CJSC Alexey Antonyuk and the Head of the Project and Structured Finance Department of Gazprombank JSC Alexander Ushkov.
Jarkko Armas Veijalainen, co-founder and chairman of the board of directors of 3 step IT Group Oy, and Harri Eerik Koponen, who heads Nortal Oy and is the commercial director of Nortal AS (formerly headed the telecommunications companies Sonera, Tele2 and Wataniya Telecom) have been nominated as independent directors ).
“Despite their youth, the new members of the board of directors have a wealth of experience, have been involved in the management of Megafon for a long time and are well acquainted with the company’s business. Their fresh perspective and deep involvement in the company’s work will be able to give additional impetus to its development,” the USM press service commented on the candidates.
The candidates were selected “based on new goals” - the company intends to focus on implementing the strategy and increasing operational efficiency. Megafon's new strategy was approved in 2017.
Megafon is the second largest Russian cellular operator, 99% of its business is in the Russian Federation (the company is also present in the markets of Tajikistan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia). At the end of June, the number of company subscribers amounted to 77.4 million people.
Megafon's largest shareholder is Garsdale (USM Alisher Usmanov and partners have 97.45% of it, Rostec has the remaining share) with 56.3%, Megafon Investments owns 3.9% of the parent (the company is listed on the LSE and "Moscow Exchange") is about 14.6%.
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How to call Megafon from Tele2, Beeline, MTS, Phoenix
Megafon provides the opportunity to resolve issues from phones of other operators. The federal hotline number is the same and does not change for calls from another operator.
To contact a call center specialist, from any mobile device you need to dial: 8 800 550 05 00.
Moreover, using a short number from SIM cards MTS, Tele2, Beeline, Phoenix, it is unrealistic to call Megafon’s subscriber service, so you should not waste time on such attempts.
Head of MegaFon - RBC: “You take a rope and drag the barge against the current”
- What do you put into it? The company didn’t appear yesterday.
— And it wasn’t yesterday that MegaFon acquired its own philosophy and culture. But they, like business priorities, must adapt and change along with the market, company plans and the external environment.
If this does not happen, then the established culture and philosophy begin to prevent the company from developing qualitatively in the market and achieving more. Being inside the company, it is easy to miss this moment. And when you come from outside, it seems more obvious and necessary to you.
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MegaFon tripled its net profit Technologies and media
A company's philosophy is who it presents itself to the market and how it behaves. There is a philosophy of a leader, there is a philosophy of what is called a follower, that is, one who follows the leader, and there is another set of philosophies that, in my opinion, are unviable and are extremely harmful to business in the long run. In my understanding, MegaFon at some point lost its leadership philosophy and did not replace it with anything significant. There was some kind of excessive focus on solving short-term immediate problems, which led to the fact that, in my opinion, the DNA of the leader in the company was lost. But this is the main thing that should move a business forward.
Khachatur Pombukhchan (Photo: Mikhail Grebenshchikov / RBC)
Culture is what unites the guys within the company with some common goal. I am far from thinking that all employees of a large corporation can be united by a single financial goal or some proclamative slogans. For me, such a “glue” in a company should be a simple thought - when each person tries to improve their work, their direction, their area of responsibility every day. This is what I call a culture of continuous improvement. That is, we do not get together every day and discuss who and when will bring us the “silver bullet” that will allow us to defeat everyone in the market; Every day, like an ordinary barge hauler, you take a rope and drag the barge against the current. And we each do at our own level what allows this barge to move faster. This is the only way to become a leader.
— What is the destination of this “barge”? The goal is to become the leader of the Russian cellular communications market or food delivery?
— We’re definitely not talking about food records. In its use, maybe. Shareholders want the company's business to be healthy and highly competitive in the long term. And of course, we will go after leadership in our key business, because walking aimlessly is just fitness.
— What is meant by the concept of “healthy business”?
— It’s impossible to answer in one sentence. I can list about 200 elements. The main ones: strengthening market positions, increasing the financial efficiency of the business and improving the perception of this business on the market in general and by each client in particular.
— Does this mean that the goal is to overtake MTS? Is it possible to further increase our share in the saturated Russian market?
— I don’t know a single operator whose management KPI would include only market share. Our main goal is a healthy telecom business. Objectively, there cannot be any explosive growth in market share; the market has formed. The size of this market is barely increasing in terms of money. If you look at the revenue of each operator and the number of subscribers in its base, you can easily see that ARPU (average revenue per subscriber per month - RBC) does not increase significantly for anyone.
MegaFon sold its stake in AliExpress Russia Business
There is a certain organic growth in quantitative terms: more and more devices connected to the Internet using SIM cards are being introduced in the country. Following smartphones, tablets, laptops, and televisions, a whole galaxy of “smart” devices appears, and these are not only refrigerators, washing machines and, say, kettles. But this growth cannot be called fantastic today.
Khachatur Pombukhchan (Photo: Mikhail Grebenshchikov / RBC)
The main indicators for us are the number of subscribers of constant consumption, P&L (the difference between profit and costs. - RBC), Lifetime value of our subscribers (revenue that the company receives from one client for the entire period of cooperation with him. - RBC).
— What percentage of your base now belongs to those who have lived with you for a long time?
— For all operators, approximately 60% of the base are subscribers who pay for communications for longer than three months, the rest are new.
— Top managers of Russian cellular companies have been complaining for many years that we have a very large quarterly outflow of subscribers, which is stimulated by the operators themselves with active sales of new SIM cards; subscribers move from one operator to another. Can this be fixed somehow, in your opinion?
Video
- This doesn't need to be fixed. This is a given. The income level of the population in the country is objectively not very high. And the lower it is, the more sensitive people are to price. Any marketing activities of operators will increase the movement of those whom marketers like to call price-seekers - those who are looking for savings every day and are not loyal to a specific brand. These clients will constantly look for benefits and connect here and there, and after some time they will leave.
The question is not how much churn you have, but how it compares to your competitors. If it is lower, you are doing great, if it is higher, it means that you are, as it is now fashionable to say, at the point of growth. There is distribution that may work better than your competitor, or worse. Depending on this, you are either great, or, again, a point of growth.
MegaFon launched the voice assistant "Eva" Technologies and media
Several factors influence the outflow: the cost of the product and distribution, the cost of attracting a subscriber, the effectiveness of advertising, the quality of services - there are many areas. The market is quite complex. It’s also complex because our product is very technologically advanced, but the perception of the final service depends on a person’s subjective opinion: communication can seem either expensive or cheap, convenient or not, depending on the circumstances.
— Have there been clear instructions from the shareholder on how exactly you should achieve your goals?
— I have new experience here with shareholders. If my previous shareholder (former owner of Magnit Sergei Galitsky. - RBC) was deep into operational details, very clearly understood on what premises the business should be built, and made sure that no one, God forbid, inserted his own premise, that's all were engaged only in high-quality sales, then here the level of attitude of shareholders is completely different. This is a very deep understanding of approaches to business management. No one formulates a specific plan for me for today, tomorrow and the month ahead. I am expected to have a clear understanding of what is happening with the business now and what should happen. My understanding should be close to the shareholders, but the implementation of this road is at my discretion. If you want to decide, decide; if you want to do, do it, but then answer for it.
What is MegaFon
MegaFon serves more than 72 million cellular subscribers in Russia (data as of the end of the first half of the year). Also present in Tajikistan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia. Owns 100% (Yota brand), 100% of the Internet provider NetByNet, 100% of the First Tower Company (owns the operator’s cellular towers), 100% of MegaFon Retail (owns the network of communication stores of the same name), 50% of the Start video service, 45% of MFT (owns 4.8% of ordinary and 57.3% of voting shares of Mail.ru Group), shares in the Uzbek Digital Holding (owns the local telecom operator Ucell and a number of other assets), etc. MegaFon’s revenue for the second quarter is 84.129 billion rub., OIBDA indicator - 37.631 billion rubles. The company belongs to USM Group of Alisher Usmanov.
“It’s pointless to sell corrective glasses to a person with normal vision.”
— When you joined the board of directors of MegaFon, was there anything that seemed surprising or completely discouraging?
— Let’s start with the fact that this industry is not new to me; before joining Magnit, I worked at MTS, and before that at the Southern Telecommunications Company (later merged with Rostelecom. — RBC). In those years, all telecom was about achieving maximum network coverage, all leadership was assessed solely in the amount of “buried” CAPEX: the more base stations you installed, the better your core network, the greater your network capacity, the cooler you are . For the last, I would say, four to five years, this story is no longer about coverage or even about the technologies you use, but about service. To be honest, the client doesn’t care whether you have 3G or 4G, what carrier frequency, what core network, what switches. He is interested in the service, and exclusively within the framework of the service that he consumes, and the service has changed.
Khachatur Pombukhchan (Photo: Mikhail Grebenshchikov / RBC)
If 15 years ago telecom for the client was about calling, talking, sending SMS, now it is completely about data transfer. But in the field of data transfer, clients get very different experiences: some watch videos, some stream, some download and read books, listen to music. And the operator’s task is to meet the expectations that the client has for this service today.
MegaFon recalculated its subscriber base in 2021 Technologies and media
— Now many cellular companies are building ecosystems. In your opinion, mobile operators should not only provide communications, but also develop food delivery services, online cinemas, etc. or not? Which path will MegaFon take?
— There are currently four players on the market, and each is developing in its own way. We have something to build our ecosystem from: a huge number of related companies developing services and complementary services for cellular subscribers - only the USM holding includes numerous assets related to digital (for example: AliExpress Russia, Mail.ru Group ), there is Svyaznoy, and a set of smaller, but potentially stellar assets that could prove themselves in the future.
But the main priority for me is still building a high-quality telecom business that is well operationally managed. And priority number two is the development of additional consumption segments into which we could enter with our subscribers, providing them with additional services.
— Will you try to get the client to buy, conditionally, a subscription to the Start online cinema or pay more for cellular communications?
— I want the client to pay for what he needs. If it’s Start, great, if it’s gigabytes of the Internet, too. During my last career, as some say, I understood one simple thing about a client: forcing him to do something is the most stupid thing you can think of.
The client allows two things: either sell him what he asks for, or sell him what you probably know he needs.
But it is pointless to sell corrective glasses to a person with normal vision, even at a discount. Just clueless. And there is no need to bother the client.
Analysts estimated the share of Russians with paid subscriptions to online cinemas Technologies and media
— How can you understand what the client really needs?
— I think that among telecom players we have the best competencies in big data analysis (big data. — RBC). There are two talented teams, one within MegaFon, the other within the group, this is oneFactor (the company was created by people from MegaFon, later became part of the USM-owned IKS Holding, develops a machine learning platform for automating business processes) . This provides fairly good opportunities for analysis and for the formation of hypotheses that we can test as part of our operational activities.
— Do you believe in super-apps (from the English super-app; applications that combine many services), when one operator will provide, conditionally, 100 services?
— I prefer another direction, which is called super service. The bottom line is this: start doing a basic service better than any other player on the market, and you will get the basis for long-term relationships with clients. When you do a million things, a million of which you understand nothing about, the result will not exceed your expectations. Therefore, no, not superapps, but superservice.
— What should be in this super service? What should it look like?
- I'll try to explain. I have been using the service of one bank for the last, probably, 15 years. There are different cases: either the card is blocked, or some payments do not go through. But I never even tried to move anywhere from it. This means that the amount of inconvenience that it creates for me is significantly less than the inconvenience that I would endure if I switched to other banks. At the same time, I have the platforms of all major banks in the country, but I actively use one, because for me its service is the most convenient. A super service is something that completely covers your need for some niche and does not create in you a desire to satisfy this need somewhere else.
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In telecom it is more difficult, because there are many points of contact with the client and the frequency of such contacts is higher than in financial services. I’m in contact with my bank maybe a couple of times a day - I make some transfers in the app, and with the operator you move around the city, in one place your connection is a little better, in another - a little worse, you do calls, download some data, watch a movie, read a book, listen to music, make a payment via mobile phone, contact a call center, go to a salon - these are all points of contact. When you are better than your competitor at every point of contact, you can consider that you have super service. If you are the same as your competitor at every point of contact, there is no super service on the market.
Khachatur Pombukhchan (Photo: Mikhail Grebenshchikov / RBC)
— Many market experts say that since the volume of data transmitted by users is constantly increasing, and the state does not allocate new frequency resources to operators, in the near future, in any case, the quality of communication will decrease. Do you agree? If operators are not given new frequencies for the development of fifth generation mobile communications (5G), when should we expect deterioration in 4G networks?
— This is called service degradation. Indeed, population density in agglomerations is increasing, and the volume of data consumption is growing by about 40–50% per year, content units are becoming heavier - the same videos that grow in size with the growth of smartphone screens, a huge number of applications that are constantly updated and transmitted data. The standard can support a certain population density with a certain amount of traffic. Mobile operators are forced to increase the number of base stations in order to reduce the coverage area of each and achieve acceptable quality on it. This works for a while, then becomes ineffective. First of all, it's too expensive. Secondly, it is very difficult to maintain the transport support infrastructure. Simply sticking base stations together is not a solution to the problem. And if a normal 5G standard does not appear in our agglomerations for some meaningful time, then the quality of the usual user experience of mobile communications will begin to degrade.
— What period is this, in your opinion?
— I don’t like to make predictions, but it’s less than ten years.
— The state, especially against the backdrop of declining incomes, always closely monitors prices. When interacting with mobile operators, the authorities are now active on the issue of the cost of communication services, as, for example, in matters of regulating prices for buckwheat?
- Listen, we have almost the cheapest connection in the world.
From the point of view of control over pricing, we, like everyone else, have a regulator - the Federal Antimonopoly Service, which closely monitors all prices - for SMS, per gigabyte, for tariffs in general. And the service is very professional. I can’t say that we are being unreasonably forced to reduce or change something, no.
In addition, we should not forget that we are in market and quite competitive conditions. Four mobile operators for Russia is objectively a lot, and this is quite tough competition, so no additional measures are required. As soon as one starts doing something unreasonable with prices, the rest happily rub their hands and begin to enjoy the stupidity of the first one.
“You make decisions under conditions of uncertainty”
— Last year, MegaFon ended its strategy for 2017–2020. Was the new document adopted before you? Will you change it?
— For 2021–2023, we have formed a fairly clear financial plan, taking into account the expectations of shareholders, we have a set of strategic priorities. This is, for example, development in the field of classic telecom and additional services, such as, for example, MegaFon TV, Start, etc. But taking into account the fact that we are beginning to look more and more at the needs of our clients, I admit that over the next year we may adopt some additional or adjusting priorities to the strategy.
MegaFon and Sber were offered to develop IT systems for waste accounting Business
— What indicators are included in the financial plan?
- We won’t reveal it.
— When delisting from the London Stock Exchange, MegaFon explained that the company intends to expand partnerships with government agencies, conduct transactions with a higher level of risk, invest in infrastructure with a lower return on capital, increase its debt load, and stop paying dividends. Was this approach justified? Why?
— Such questions are always easy to answer. After all, retrospective analysis is the simplest. You make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, and analyze the results based on the fact and with numbers in hand. I can say this: the company fulfilled the tasks that were set during the delisting. And the synergies that the company planned to obtain, it received.
— Are you considering the possibility of returning to the stock exchange? Is this written in the plan? Maybe not to London, but to some other one.
— If at some point we understand that we, as an operator, are ready for this step, we will discuss it. There are no contraindications. The approved financial plan includes such a hypothetical possibility.
— What are the main risks you included in the plan?
— The biggest risks for us are related to the pandemic, because they affect the revenue and activities of all companies in the sector. Another significant risk is changes in legislation. The country is young and growing, legislation continues to be formed, so every year we see certain changes. Of course, we need to follow them, but they do not always have a positive impact on the company’s operating performance. The third group of risks is profile-related, related to the technological stability of the network and infrastructure; we always work closely with them.
Khachatur Pombukhchan (Photo: Mikhail Grebenshchikov / RBC)
But this is the usual list of risks that all operators live with. I cannot say that we from MegaFon see some fantastic risk that no one sees. Yes, we are working with a fairly large debt load, because we had to ensure delisting, but its reduction is a matter of time; this affects operational efficiency only through interest on the loan, which is not critical.
“When you do something specific, the result is usually better”
— You are negotiating the merger of the First Tower Company (PBK), into which MegaFon allocated its cell towers, and the independent infrastructure operator Vertical. In the summer, Forbes wrote, citing its sources, that the new structure could go public with the help of Ivan Tavrin’s SPAC Kismet Acquisition Two. Is this really true?
— Negotiations are ongoing, various configurations of the deal are being considered. Today PBK is 100% owned by MegaFon. At the same time, we have always said that the tower business for a mobile operator is non-core, and we have never hidden our intention to sell it to a reliable partner at a favorable price. And the fact that other operators have also begun to separate passive infrastructure into separate businesses, and some are already monetizing it in some way, is a trend.
If you look at the global scale, you can clearly see that mobile operators are now valued at an EBITDA multiple of 4 to 6, and tower companies - at a multiple of more than 20, in developing countries - from 10 to 14. This means that any mobile operator is profitable bring passive infrastructure into a separate business in order to effectively monetize it. And to do this fully, the company must be made public. I am confident that all market players will ultimately move in this direction.
The Times named Alisher Usmanov the most generous philanthropist in 20 years Business
Our portfolio of tower structures is one of the largest on the market. You have seen a benchmark for the value of such an asset on the market (at the beginning of September, the sale of 15.4 thousand out of 50 thousand VimpelCom cell towers in Russia was announced for $970 million, or 70.65 billion rubles, - RBC). It is easy to calculate approximately how much we could get for PBK.
Moreover, I see the most successful development of the tower business only when one player is formed in the market, independent of operators. With such inputs, you can achieve multipliers above 10.
— So you expect that infrastructure companies will merge with each other?
“Otherwise they won’t be able to defeat each other or make full money.” The story works when there are four operators and one independent infrastructure tower owner.
— Where would the company send the funds from the sale of the towers if such a transaction took place?
— We would reduce the debt.
— At the beginning of August, MegaFon sold its 24.3% stake in the online retailer AliExpress Russia to its parent company. Why?
— Where we do not have operational management, where there is simply passive ownership, we are slowly leaving. I don’t want to keep shares on MegaFon’s balance sheet that are in no way connected with the company’s operational business; this blurs the focus of management and wastes a lot of their time. Having left the shareholders of AliExpress Russia, we maintain contact with our colleagues in the holding and definitely do not withdraw from the partnership. The projects implemented since 2021 are still alive, we have many plans for the future that do not depend in any way on our status and the presence of a MegaFon representative on the board of directors of AliExpress Russia.
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“But just such an asset would help in building an ecosystem of complementary services.” This is wrong? Just like the share in Mail.ru Group, in which MegaFon refused direct ownership.
— An ecosystem can be built around different platforms. It can be built around a loyalty platform, around a telecom operator platform, around one company that owns everything. From my experience I know one thing - when you are engaged in a specific task, the result, as a rule, is better than when you are engaged in several tasks at once, each of which you are not very versed in.
— It turns out that of the two approaches - a closed ecosystem, which is being built, for example, by Sberbank, when all its participants belong to the bank, or an open one on the principles of partnerships, which, for example, is created by VTB - is the second closer to you?
- Yes. In my understanding, it is logically more correct. Let me explain: when you have an open ecosystem, you can take whoever you want as a partner, a market leader, a potentially strong company; and if things don’t work out for her, you can end the partnership and start a new one. The market is changing, technologies are changing, companies are merging, dividing, ceasing operations, clients are changing their preferences and habits. If you have a closed ecosystem, the moment you buy something or build something yourself, then you carry this “something” in your backpack for the rest of your life. Was it the market leader at the time of purchase, is it still the same after a few years, what new things have you added there - you are in the constant process of asking yourself such questions. In my opinion, this is a less flexible and much more capital-intensive story.
— If you do not want to participate in companies where you do not have operational management, does this mean that MegaFon will not enter into a joint venture with Alibaba Ant Group (develops the Alipay payment service), the agreement on which you, Mail.ru Group, USM and RDIF signed in February of this year?
— We are working on a deal. I can’t say yet when it will be fully implemented, but it could be very complementary for MegaFon. This is a high-quality payment system, you can build a loyalty program around it, it can be a good element in the ecosystem.
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— The USM group has already attempted to create a payment system based on VKontakte — VKPay. Why bring another one to Russia?
— Initially, it was planned to combine these two areas. AliPay was supposed to become a shareholder of VKPay. The main working option for us is VKPay, the Chinese company should strengthen it.
— Does MegaFon plan to move its headquarters from the business center in Oruzheiny Lane? Earlier there was information that the Central Bank wanted to buy this building from you and Sberbank, and MegaFon itself was considering the option of moving to City.
— The Central Bank was interested in the building before the pandemic, then the world changed. Now there are no plans to sell this building or change it, but if we have any proposals, we will consider it.
Khachatur Pombukhchan (Photo: Mikhail Grebenshchikov / RBC)
Six facts about Khachatur Pombukhchan
on March 16, 1974 in Krasnodar.
In 1996 he graduated from the Faculty of Applied Mathematics of Kuban State University, in 2000 from the All-Russian Correspondence Institute of Finance and Economics with a degree in accounting and auditing.
In 1997, he began working as a software engineer at Kubansvyazservice (Southern Telecommunications Company), where he rose to the rank of head of the commercial department of the branch;
In 2004, he became director of sales for the macro-region “South” of MTS;
In 2008, he became the financial director of Magnit, and from February to June
2018 - headed this company;
Since January 2021 - executive director and member of the board, and since July - CEO of MegaFon.
