Futubra: Russia’s Twitter Rival

THE GIST:  Russian-language microblogging multimedia platform. FOUNDERS:  Futubra is the latest product of the Mail.ru group which already boasts an impressive portfolio of a free email service, widely-used browser,and an array of popular  social games. Additionally, Mail.ru has an existing stake in Russia’s Facebook-esque social network VKontakte. LAUNCHES: Today, but it is still in development. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Futubra has a ‘stream’ timeline similar to that of Twitter, but the scrolling can be endless and videos and images show up already expanded making for a bolder experience.
• Resembling  Twitter’s list function, Futubra’s ‘Ribbon’are described as “ways to group your subscriptions. For example, you can create separate tapes for friends, news and entertainment.”
• All content on Futubra is totally public.
• Futubra’s connections are based on interest, rather relationship as you can follow all your favorite microbloggers with just a click, confirming the mutual friendship is not necessary to receive their feeds.
• Similar to Chime.in, in addition to subscribing to people, users can subscribe to topics as well as create groups.
• The current version is Web-only, but Futubra was designed to be device agnostic so you can access the site from all mobile devices. Apps are expected to be released for iOS, Android, Windows and Symbian soon.

WHAT THEY SAID: Mail.Ru Group CEO Dmitry Grishin spoke today to a small conference of  industry journalists on Mail.Ru’s excitement: “We are excited by the opportunity facing Futubra as microblogging is a fast growing segment which fits well into the Mail.Ru Group vision of the growth in internet communications. Futubra demonstrates Mail.Ru Group’s ongoing commitment to internet communication platforms, innovation and mobile applications. The focus in the near term will be product development and the building of new online communities. SCREENSHOTS: