SpyLOG Has Sights Set on World

Russian Internet rating agency SpyLOG has crossed the border and is gearing up to market itself in other European countries, including the Czech Republic, Germany and Britain.

But visitors would never guess the agency's origins by glancing at its English-language site, www.mytrix.com. Its Russian roots are nowhere to be found ?€” which is how SpyLOG wants it.

"We conducted polls and concluded that a statistical service that uses the word 'spy' in its name ?€” and which has Russian roots on top of that ?€” would surely provoke fears in people," SpyLOG head Andrei Andreyev, 26, said in an e-mail interview.

"Stereotypes in Russia like KGB, mafia and hackers are hard to change and would start to work against us."

The non-Russian language sites use the same technology, but have been changed slightly, such as in design, to fit different markets. One server for Mytrix.com is based in Germany and provides widespread access by interacting with technical platforms in other regions of Europe.

"For example, someone on a business trip will register on the statistical system nearest to him ?€” like [roaming] with mobile phones," Andreyev said.

Online advertisers and investors use SpyLOG's web statistics and analysis to gauge the popularity of a site, while regular Internet surfers will often click on a highly rated site. For clients, online rating agencies are the Internet's cheaper answer to third party auditing from the Big 5.

Mytrix was up and running in English and Czech in June, and the company is observing their progress before marketing the service in September.

The privately funded SpyLOG, founded in 1999, won't say how much money it's spending on expansion, revealing only that the largest chunk will go toward marketing. SpyLOG is now fully owned by U.S. company Mytrix Inc., which, according to Andreyev, "has a rather difficult ownership structure that includes system creators, several private investors and local partners."

Mytrix Inc. was created only this year and drives expansion by finding local partners abroad, including in Ukraine, Lithuania and the United States.

SpyLOG is banking on luring a stash of clients abroad with deeper pockets to spend on Internet auditing services. The Russians will be facing some well-established English-language brands, like WebTrendLive and Hitbox.

"The problem with the Western market is the very high cost of entering," said Anton Nosik, head of Rambler Holding, which runs competing web tracker Rambler Top100, often used together with SpyLOG. "Basically, any of your competitors has already invested millions of shareholders' money."

SpyLOG insists it has the technology and experience to make its mark abroad and points out that it is already a profitable company ?€” with more financial details promised this fall. It also hopes to win on price against its costlier English-language competitors.

Earning a reputation ?€” particularly as a newcomer in the high-tech market, which went on the skids last year ?€” is another task. On the local market at least, SpyLOG is strengthening itself through a merger with Aport Top1000 and 1000Stars, which belong to Golden Telecom.

SpyLOG's statistics aren't perfect, says Yelena Komanovskaya, chief editor of Yandex search engine, who estimated that the agency's margin of error is no more than 15 percent.

"SpyLOG is not an exact measure, but it's a measure to compare," she said.

Nosik said nothing is sure fire for Mytrix. "They are fishing at a pond where they can catch an alligator, a goldfish or nothing, as is usual in the Internet."