Russia’s biggest mobile operator MTS (MCX:MTSS) has signed a strategic marketing agreement with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG).
Russia’s biggest mobile operator MTS (MCX:MTSS) has signed a strategic marketing agreement with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG).
MTS will promote Google’s voice search tool “OK, Google” and pre-install it on all Android smartphones it sells. In return MTS will get a slice of Google’s advertising revenue generated in Russia.
MTS vice president for marketing Vasyl Latsanych commented: “We believe that only close cooperation between operators and internet companies will lead to efficient and dynamic development of telecommunications.”
Android is the most popular mobile operating system in Russia and is installed on roughly 70% of smartphone handsets.
This is not MTS’s first partnership with Google. Its first strategic marketing agreement was signed in 2012 to promote Google applications on MTS smartphones, and in 2013 MTS began offering its B2B customers the Google Apps for Business suite.