What happens when collaborating with an aggregator company. How Yandex Taxi, Uber and Gett work

Vadim Dozortsev, head of practice “Building an effective sales system” in KSK groups

Big fish and small fish

The main trend of our time is changes in the relationship between large and small businesses. The landscape of businesses and industries is changing rapidly. Just a few years ago there were large, medium and small companies, and each had its own niche in which they found customers and achieved acceptable profitability. The economic situation has changed. Small businesses, especially in the service sector, are forced to spend more and more effort and money to find their customers (leads), and at the same time their costs continue to rise. For most companies small business Already today these expenses are exorbitant, the dynamics are such that a few more years - and at best they will work at zero, earning nothing. On the other hand, large businesses feel quite confident, but at the same time, small customer needs suffer, which a large company simply does not consider necessary to deal with; obviously, this is a niche for smaller companies. What will be next? It turns out that we are all facing some kind of reformatting of the business landscape. Which one exactly?

The main restructuring will be that big business Due to its strong brand, serious financial capabilities, working capital, logistics and production capabilities, as well as financial models that allow the accumulation of certain resources, it will begin to attract more and more potential clients. Companies that are leaders in their industry will increasingly play a role aggregators, accumulating most of the requests from clients of different levels of readiness: “hot” – ready to buy; “warm” - having a certain interest in this product, but not yet ready to buy or considering several options, and, finally, “cold” - not knowing anything about the product offered or not needing it. At the same time, even the largest company is not able to process all incoming leads efficiently. Having selected the most interesting clients from the total mass, the aggregator company distributes all the rest to participants in its ecosystem, consisting of business partners - small business companies. This interaction model, safe for large and small businesses, will allow the market to enter a qualitatively new stage of development.

Under the wing of “big brother”

Why is small business going under the wing of its “big brother” and this trend is only getting worse? The reason is the cost of the potential client. To attract a lead, you need to create a portrait of the client and begin to actively attract him. Marketing communications are becoming more and more expensive today. Cost per click in Yandex or Google in all industries is growing day by day. Many small companies are no longer able to get customers at this price. Digital promotion is also not cheap. You can try to reach clients through “cold” calls, make contacts more active, but to get one effective sales manager, you need to train five interns. Where can I get the money for this? To be heard today, you must very persistently try to reach your potential client. But how to do this in a situation where large corporations and companies do not just talk, but shout about their product? Small businesses do not have enough resources for this. Therefore, small businesses are waiting for the emergence of large aggregators to enter their ecosystem and solve the problem of getting customers. There are many such precedents today, for example, Microsoft Business Solution. How does this aggregator work? First of all, serious marketing, promoting your business solutions through conferences, digital -promotion and promotion. Accumulation incoming requests from potential clients, and then redistributing them throughout your affiliate network. It is this trend that will gain momentum in many industries in the near future.

Business according to the rules

The activities of such an ecosystem are based on optimal business processes and end-to-end automation. Another most important condition for the existence of an aggregator is the management of lead generation and building sales processes. The development of an affiliate network in this case is not just sales, but relationships with participants in the eco-system, who must work according to sales canons: attraction, classification, closing a deal, servicing this deal, development (core competencies when creating business aggregators).

Small businesses need to understand that the “big brother” will dictate its terms, prescribe forms of interaction, and demand clear standards for the performance of services. This is similar to franchising, when a large company gives a franchise, it strictly requires compliance with the rules. It turns out that for a small business there is no choice; if a large aggregator is identified in its industry, it will have to go to it, negotiate and integrate into the general outline. Therefore, small businesses need to prepare to play by the rules of large market players. First of all, improve the quality of your services because if the services are of poor quality, business aggregator will not be interested in them. Develop relationship processes with existing clients. First of all, the ability to use a CRM system, process discipline. Interaction with the Client is a key business process for small businesses. Satisfaction assessment, cross-selling, receiving recommendations - this is the future of small business, there is no other alternative.

How to become a business aggregator

If a large company understands that its future lies in creating a business aggregation, what aspects should it focus on? The first is developing a strategy. What products and services is the company ready to provide to the affiliate network? The second is business processes and interaction, and, of course, automation. A combination of ERP systems, CRM systems, Internet offices through which the company operates, and clearly organized end-to-end processes that allow you to track the entire process. The goal of the aggregator is to bring lead generation to an industrial scale. Each request is assessed, segmented and qualified in order to qualitatively distribute them among ecosystem members. This is how an affiliate network is grown. Don’t “kill” small companies, but develop them, providing feasible leads, while controlling the quality of the services provided. Today he is a small partner, but tomorrow his competence will grow and he will become a major partner.

If an aggregator learns to count lead generation and analyze it, understanding where the lead comes from, how much it costs, and which partner implements it most effectively, there will be virtually no loss of potential clients. Today, many large companies simply throw away inappropriate requests. The business aggregator implements them in its business system. This makes it possible to develop your potential client. Today you don’t need it, but you leave it in your ecosystem, redistributing it to a smaller partner. The lead is not lost and will eventually grow into a target client. Typically in marketing, costs are at least 10%, but with transparent lead generation and distribution of all incoming leads in your ecosystem, the losses will be minimal and the return on investment (ROI) will be explosive. This is, of course, the future, but it is a very near future. In five to eight years, we will all be watching the battles of giants, but it will not be huge whales who will fight, but their ecosystems.

We should also not forget that an ecosystem is stable only if all processes are balanced. All participants should feel comfortable. Therefore, interaction and training of partners is a key activity of a business aggregator. He must understand the needs and capabilities of his partners, teach them how to interact with his business processes. At the same time, big business has serious leverage over system participants. Violators of the convention face the risk of having their lead flow cut off. This forces partners to listen to the aggregator and fulfill its requirements.

What does the trend towards the emergence of large industry aggregators promise for business in general?

First of all, these are huge opportunities for large businesses, which are no longer profitable to put pressure on medium and small businesses; it is much more useful to attract smaller companies to business partnerships and share potential clients with them. This is also convenient for small businesses that receive clients, and at the same time they take care of servicing the clients’ needs, leaving their aggregator partner the opportunity to deal with the production part. This is exactly the model that is already being implemented by such giants as Amazon, Google, and other large foreign companies.

In Russia, an example of a business aggregator in the field of consulting services is a rapidly developing and always proactive company KSK groups. The company does not adapt to the market, but strives to control it, and sets its clients and partners up for such a development model. Possessing significant resources, a strong and high-quality brand, the company is able to attract many potential clients for various consulting services: from raising financing to managing sales, marketing and auditing. Some of the leads are distributed directly between the internal practices of KSK groups, and some - between attracted external companies that are part of the ecosystem of this company, being its external partners. KSK Group transferred all its business processes into a single system, attracting and distributing attracted clients between internal and external experts. This is very convenient not only for partners, but also for clients who, using the “one-stop-shop” principle, receive the full range of consulting services of the highest quality, ensuring all their tasks regarding security, sustainability and business development.

Affiliate Material

Both communication with customers and our own practice paint a sad picture for business: the cost of attracting and servicing customers is constantly growing. All cheap tricks are instantly replicated and stop working. Customers eat popcorn as they watch the battle over their order.

Corporate pages turn into real media (or stop attracting clients), social networks and search engines want money (or stop bringing clients), discounts eat up margins, you have to implement CRM (or lose clients).
In a young market, success requires enthusiasm; in a mature market, resources are needed. The Russian market has matured thoroughly, and in some places it has become very overripe. Already today, these costs are prohibitive for small businesses. Another couple of years - and the small company will not be able to attract customers while remaining profitable.

How are big businesses doing?

Large businesses are precisely engaged in intercepting “warmed-up” customer flows. The most ordinary market laws operate in the lead market, and according to them, a large company always wins over a small one.
A large company scoops up all the fish with a small net, and is faced with the need to throw away half of the catch. Some potential customers are too small, their orders are not interesting to serious players. The other part wants a special product, something individual, but a large company always aims at mass production.

What to do with unnecessary leads?

The funds have already been spent, the lead has already been received and even processed, just throwing it away is a waste. But maintaining it yourself is wasteful.
A large company creates a partner ecosystem of small and medium-sized companies, to whom it transfers unnecessary leads under certain conditions.
This interaction model is beneficial for both large and small businesses and customers. Therefore, the future belongs to her. However, if you look around carefully, you will see that she is already here.
Here's an example - Microsoft Business Solution. How does this aggregator work? First of all, serious marketing, promoting your business solutions through conferences, digital promotion and promotion. Accumulation of incoming requests from potential clients, and then redistribution of them throughout your affiliate network.

What's changing for small businesses?

Keep in mind: you won’t be able to work “the old fashioned way” in the aggregator ecosystem. A large company works technologically and demands the same from all partners. Do you want to use its resources? Obey her rules.
The ecosystem is not just about transferring leads. This is joining the common information infrastructure, this is working according to uniform standards of attraction and service, these are common marketing and sales technologies.
It is worth preparing for the emergence of an aggregator in advance: improving the quality of services, introducing standards, training sellers, strengthening discipline, introducing CRM, assessing customer satisfaction, increasing repeat and cross-sales. Such a company will enter the aggregator ecosystem on good terms, and the chaotic business “on the knee” will be left behind.

How to become a business aggregator?

Do you want to become an aggregator?
First of all, develop a strategy. What products and services will you transfer to the affiliate network?
Secondly, work on business processes and interaction, and, of course, automation. A combination of ERP systems, CRM systems, Internet offices through which you will work, and clearly organized end-to-end processes that allow you to track the progress of each transaction.
The goal of the aggregator is to bring lead generation to an industrial scale. All requests are assessed, segmented and qualified in order to correctly distribute them among ecosystem members. This is how an affiliate network is grown. Don’t “kill” small companies, but develop them, providing feasible leads, while controlling the quality of the services provided. Today he is a small partner, but tomorrow his competence will grow and he will become a major partner.
If an aggregator learns to count lead generation and analyze it, understanding where the lead comes from, how much it costs, and which partner implements it better, there will be virtually no loss of potential clients. In addition, a small client can still grow, and you will benefit greatly if it grows while remaining in your ecosystem, under your control.
Do not forget that the ecosystem is stable as long as all its participants are comfortable. As soon as you decide to squeeze your partner, save on his development and training, lower quality requirements, upsetting your customers, the competing ecosystem will lick its lips predatorily. A good aggregator is a loving but strict parent. When he neglects his responsibilities, not only the “children” suffer, but also his own future.

Conclusion

If you are the leader in your market, prepare to become an aggregator. This way you will become stronger and richer. If you miss this opportunity, and another aggregator appears in your market, it will certainly take away your leadership.
If you are a small company, you will greatly benefit from outsourcing your lead generation to an aggregator and borrowing its sales technology. To interest the aggregator, put your business in order.

The diagram depicts the principle of operation: in green the interaction between driver and passenger, and in burgundy the distribution of payment.

Aggregators taxi (aggregator from the Latin word aggregatio, i.e. “accumulation”). Aggregators united taxi fleets. Uber was the first to appear in 2009, followed by Yandex Taxi and Gett Taxi in 2011.

General operating principles of aggregators:

1. Where do orders come from?. The passenger contacts the driver through a mobile application.
2. Who connects drivers. Aggregators: Yandex-taxi, Uber and Gett-taxi work with legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, and they, in turn, work with drivers.
3. Commission. Aggregators and taxi companies take a percentage of the order for intermediation. For example, Uber takes 20%, and the taxi company takes up to 10%.
4. Why is it popular? Aggregators place high demands on the car and driver, ensuring quality and safety. The passenger is comfortable.
5. Why is it popular? Part No. 2. Most often, the cost of the trip is known in advance. You can order any car: economy and business class, with a child seat or a minivan. Passengers like this too.
6. Why is it popular? Part No. 3. Due to the large number of cars connected to aggregators, there is no need to wait for a taxi. For example, in Moscow, from application to submission it will take no more than 10 minutes.

How Uber works for drivers:

1. Who connects to Uber. Uber cooperates only with partners - legal entities or individual entrepreneurs.
2. Who is connected to Uber?. Partners connect drivers to Uber who meet the following requirements: driving experience of more than 3 years, a taxi license, no criminal record, and a car from the list.
3. What smartphone. The driver application works on both Android and iOS. A smartphone or tablet with a SIM card will do.
4. Commission. Uber takes 20% of the order and the partner takes 5-10%.
5. Driver work schedule. The driver can work as much as he wants, at least 15 hours a day, at least 3 hours a week.
6. When is the salary. The driver receives money on the card once a week or once a day. The partner transfers the money minus his commission.
7. Is it difficult to work? If a driver has a low rating, Uber disables him.

How Yandex.Taxi works for drivers:

1. Who connects to Yandex Taxi. Yandex cooperates only with taxi companies - legal entities or individual entrepreneurs.
2. Driver application. The application is called Yandex Taxometer and works only on Android devices. In Taximeter you can see orders, profit, rating, etc.
3. Features of Yandex Taximeter. The taximeter balance must be positive to accept orders. If you receive payment in cash, then the Yandex commission should be debited from the taximeter. If there is no money on the Taxometer balance, there will be nowhere to write off the commission. Non-cash payments are received in your Taximeter minus the commission.
4. Commission. Yandex takes a 23% commission on orders, part of which is shared with the taxi company. Also, taxi companies charge a commission of 3-10% for withdrawing funds from a taximeter.
5. Checks. Increased requirements for driver training. Passing photo control - suddenly you have to send photos of the car and documents. Completing training and certification at the centers is for beginners and those who have not worked for a month and a half.
6. Salary. The driver receives money on the card upon request to the taxi company. And so he can accumulate them on the Taximeter.
7. Is it difficult to work? They will block you for passenger complaints, for a low rating, for a dirty car, and if you do not accept proposed orders.

History of development

The Soviet Union had a state taxi monopoly. It was impossible to engage in private transportation, and all taxis and taxi drivers were approximately the same:

The image of a Soviet taxi driver.

With the collapse of the USSR, entrepreneurs began to appear in the new Russia who copied businesses from abroad by creating commercial taxi companies. And of course the bombers are private drivers.

Bombs from the early 90s.

This process developed and by 2010 reached certain limits: there were enough taxi companies. Some taxi companies were ordinary, while others were tailored to their audience: taxis for women, for businessmen, for inexpensive trips.

More or less well-known brands were formed: “New Yellow Taxi”, “Taxi Commander”, etc. All “fish” places near train stations, airports and metro stations were divided between groups and diasporas.

Women's taxi. Belonging to a specific vehicle fleet is visible.

The cost for ordinary people was high. To travel around Moscow for less than 500 rubles, you had to bargain, and getting to the airport for less than 3,000-5,000 thousand is simply impossible.

The development of the Internet has done its job and taxi aggregators have appeared. Aggregators began to unite taxi fleets. Uber was the first to appear in 2009, followed by Yandex Taxi and Gett in 2011.

In essence, aggregators are developers of programs that connect the driver with the passenger. Due to extensive advertising opportunities, potential passengers know that if they download a smartphone application and order a taxi through it, it will be inexpensive, comfortable and safe.

Uber app for passengers. Everything is clear, fast and inexpensive.

Uber is not only the very first network, but also the most widespread in the world. Uber positions itself as a service of professional drivers and disowns the word taxi.

Aggregators have erased and equalized various taxi brands. When ordering a taxi through an aggregator, a passenger receives an adequate and fixed price for the trip. Having ordered a taxi from Yandex Taxi, the passenger will not even know that a driver from the Vist-M taxi fleet has come to him. For the passenger it will be just a Yandex taxi.

Aggregators have changed the market - it is more profitable for a fleet owner to work not on brand development, but on a selection of cars and driver training.

Thanks to the fact that aggregators have united hundreds of thousands of taxis, a passenger ordering a car waits less than 10 minutes at any time. After all, there are always several ready taxi drivers nearby.

But today we are talking about aggregators as intermediaries between the seller and the end buyer. Such sites accumulate product offers from different sellers and present them in catalog format, where the user can select using various filters. The earnings of aggregators, as a rule, consist of a percentage of the transaction amount (for example, 5% of the ticket price), as well as the cost of special placements (for example, highlighting ads in searches, raising them to the top positions in search results).

Aggregators can be grouped by topic, with several players of different sizes working in each thematic block:

Aggregators also exist in the segments of car and spare parts sales, insurance and banking services, bus transportation, teacher and tutor services, housing rentals and other areas. Launching a product offering aggregator is one of the popular startup ideas that can work if the niche is chosen correctly.

Business benefits

For businesses, aggregators of product offerings are an additional sales channel, and often a channel for promoting their own services or products, since aggregators often offer their participants marketing support - both on a commercial and non-commercial basis.

Marketing support

OZON.ru follows the path of selecting proposals: “It is very important for us to build honest relationships with customers. That’s why we so carefully select partners who place products on our resource, because for buyers it’s us too - OZON.ru. We have about 100 such partners and we do not seek to increase them radically, since it is important to maintain quality", - says Maria Nazamutdinova, head of PR and internal communications at OZON.ru.

In 2014, representatives of large aggregators (eBay, Price.ru, Wikimart, Mail.Ru Products and Yandex.Market) even created their own NPO - the Independent Association of Commodity Aggregators, which fights counterfeit products sold through services. Through the organization’s website, you can file a complaint about low-quality products purchased through aggregators.

Increased sales

Often aggregators become not an additional, but the main sales channel. Vladimir Orlov, managing partner of Obed.ru, says that the share of clients coming from Obed.ru reaches 80% in some restaurants.

In search results, links to the websites of small companies - mini-hotels, restaurants, regional taxi services - are easily lost among the announcements of large market players. For such non-chain establishments and service services, aggregators are a real chance to attract buyers. Radario.ru allows theaters, museums, concert venues, private promoters and sports organizations to sell tickets on their websites or social networks. The user does not go to the websites of ticket operators, where he can get lost, faced with a thousand other events, which increases conversion significantly.

We fight our competitors

The peculiarity of aggregators is that the product or service they offer is the same as that of competitors, other aggregators. Therefore, if there are already players in your segment, you should compete using your own resources:

• Improved service;
• Narrow specialization within its segment (concentration on certain product categories, targeting a narrow target audience);
• Better working conditions with counterparties.

Improving the service

Improved service refers to both technological and marketing moves:

1. Launch of mobile applications;
2. Integration of online consultants into the website;
3. Live consultations by phone through the call center;
4. Convenient payment and document processing systems.

Obed.ru allows companies that pay for meals for their employees to work with multiple restaurants through one contract, reducing time spent on paperwork and ensuring cash control. In the mobile application and on the Radario.ru website there is a recommendation chat, where online the user can receive a recommendation from a call center specialist about the desired event or advice on where to go based on his preferences.

Narrow specialization within the segment

Specialization allows you to reduce the number of competitors or become one of a kind. Thus, Obed.ru, aggregating food delivery services, initially focused on the b2b audience and developed, mainly dealing with orders for corporate lunches. Today, the service occupies about 80% of the market in the b2b segment and works with companies such as Superjob, Rambler&Co, Kaspersky Lab, GisMeteo. The aggregator Eavtobus.com also followed this path, highlighting bus transportation as a separate direction, which differs from other modes of transport. According to the creators of the project, the peculiarity of the market is that in bus transportation new routes appear almost every day and it is necessary to consolidate current information on one resource.

We provide the best conditions for counterparties

Vladimir Orlov assures that the aggregator will be more successful if it is as useful as possible for those whom it aggregates: “Obed.ru provides partners with the opportunity to outsource many processes. For example, we have a call center that takes care of communicating with clients. Not every establishment can afford to set up this “inhouse” service. Secondly, the technology platform of aggregators allows you to work with a large amount of data obtained during feedback analysis. Starting from order evaluations to specific wishes to improve the quality of the product/service. These analytics can be extremely useful for restaurants, especially so-called no-name restaurants that have to compete with their big-name peers.”

An aggregator can also become the best for sellers of its goods or services due to more attractive working conditions: a low percentage of the transaction amount, bonus systems. In general, the percentage of the amount of the service for aggregators of various directions fluctuates at the level of 4-10%. Radario.ru requests a commission of 4% on sales through the organizer’s website and social networks and 8% on sales through its own retail outlet. The Yandex.Taxi service takes 5% of the cost of each order for its services.

Problems and solutions

Vladimir Orlov divides market problems into 2 categories: specific to aggregators of product offers and general, relating to any e-commerce projects.

The first includes the perception of aggregators as competitors by sellers of goods and services that the site sells: “Chain restaurants sometimes perceive delivery services as competitors. In some cases, even after connecting to our system, restaurants try to lure away the client in order to work directly. Here it is important to understand that it is we who bring clients. Therefore, restaurateurs’ fears are easily dispelled with the help of numbers. We demonstrate our tools for attracting and retaining customers, and partners understand how they can earn more together.”

The second group of problems includes typical difficulties of any industry: lack of qualified personnel, low level of service in the country as a whole.

According to Sergei Suchkov, co-founder and CEO of Radario.ru, the key problem is the inertia of the market: while the purchase of electronic air tickets is not a concern for almost anyone, there are still problems with trust in the cultural and entertainment segment. “Even though the purchase takes only 3 clicks, electronic ticket sales are inferior to offline ones. Often, organizers approach the implementation of technological solutions rather timidly: sometimes due to habituation to old methods, sometimes due to little familiarity with technology. Thus, some regional theaters still operate using ticket books. But the market trend towards technologization and the growth of mobile commerce plays in our favor. Thus, over the three years of Radario’s operation, turnover increased from 70,000 rubles to 10 million rubles per day (peak figures).”

The fact that the market for niche aggregators will develop is also evidenced by the increase in the number of partners starting to work with services. All that remains is to identify an unoccupied niche and attract investment to launch a startup.

Roman Prokhorov, Chairman of the Board of the Financial Innovation Association;

1. Aggregators – who are they?

Payment service aggregators appeared in the infrastructure of the global and Russian payment business relatively recently, but are actively expanding their positions. Unlike most foreign jurisdictions, in Russia their activities are practically not regulated by relevant legislation in the field of regulation of the payment market, including the Federal Law “On the National Payment System”. The result is the emergence of a number of problems that negatively affect the activities of participants in the payment market. As is known, non-bank structures - aggregators of payment services - allow payers and service providers to make payments through a variety of payment systems and schemes, within which one party buys, and the other, respectively, sells its goods and/or services. At the same time, in order to implement a wide range of methods for accepting non-cash payments, an online store only needs to interact with one aggregator, instead of concluding a significant number of separate agreements with participants in payment systems or payment schemes (for example, with electronic money operators).

As a rule, this is due to several factors: not every bank participating in the payment system is ready to enter into an acquiring agreement with an online store, taking into account not only the risks when servicing such business entities, but also the economic efficiency of such services (income from operations may not cover their cost related to connecting a store, monitoring operations, operational support, etc.).

An important advantage for a client of an online store, if the latter works with an aggregator, is the ability to choose and pay for purchases in the method (payment cards, electronic money, credit transfer, etc.) that he considers most comfortable.

Thus, an aggregator of payment services is a legal entity that is not a credit organization (not necessarily operating in the Russian legal framework), operating in the field of payment services, establishing multiple agreements with individual trading enterprises, service providers and service providers to organize payment for their services by consumers .

2. Business models practiced by aggregators

2.1. Carrying out settlements using the aggregator’s bank account (using the example of transactions with payment cards)

When making payments using the aggregator’s bank account, the flow of funds is as follows (see diagram 1).

Scheme 1. Carrying out settlements using the aggregator’s bank account (using the example of transactions with payment cards)

Notes on the diagram:

1. The transfer of funds is carried out at the expense of the payer’s funds in his bank account.

2. Crediting funds to the aggregator’s bank account.

3. Transfer of funds from the aggregator’s bank account to the online store’s bank account.

When implementing the specified scheme and similar aggregators in some cases are guided by the following approaches.

2.1.1. Carrying out operations within the framework of the models of payment agents and bank payment agents established by Federal Law No. 103-FZ of June 3, 2009 “On activities for accepting payments from individuals carried out by payment agents” (hereinafter referred to as Federal Law No. 103-FZ) and articles 14 of Federal Law No. 161-FZ.

Let us immediately note that this approach cannot be considered as fully meeting the requirements of current legislation . This circumstance is due to the fact that the provisions of these federal laws regulate the relations arising during the implementation of activities:

upon receipt by the payment agent from the payer cash Money;

for the provision of services for translation funds on the basis of agreements concluded by bank payment agents (hereinafter referred to as BPAs) with money transfer operators, taking into account the requirements of Article 14 of Federal Law No. 161-FZ.

Thus, the aggregator, if it performs the functions of a payment agent and payment agent within the framework of Federal Law No. 103-FZ and Federal Law No. 161-FZ, respectively, is not entitled to make payments with online stores (including other suppliers of goods (works, services) for transactions with payment cards, electronic money), since the legal structure of these federal laws regulates the relations of entities related to the acceptance of payments and the acceptance of cash, and does not provide carrying out banking operations related to the transfer of funds using electronic means of payment.

2.1.2. Carrying out operations within the framework of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (“agency scheme”).

According to Art. 1005 “Agency Agreement” of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Part 2) under an agency agreement, one party (agent) undertakes, for a fee, to perform legal and other actions on behalf of the other party (principal) on its own behalf, but at the expense of the principal or on behalf and at the expense of the principal.

An aggregator who has chosen to follow the requirements of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation within the framework of an agent scheme will be able to use his bank account for settlements with other participants. For example, within the framework of agency agreements concluded with aviation and railway companies, according to which the aggregator is given the right to sell air and railway tickets with receipt cash cash for sold passenger tickets and their subsequent transfer on their behalf to transport companies (suppliers of goods (works, services) . However, the aggregator does not have the right to carry out these calculations for transactions with payment cards by transferring funds from their bank accounts to the bank accounts of service providers. This prohibition is due to the current banking legislation and regulations of the Bank of Russia, in particular the Regulation of the Bank of Russia dated December 24, 2004 No. 266-P “On the issuance of payment cards and on transactions performed with their use,” according to which the activities of the aggregator in the case under consideration fall within the definition activities of credit institutions related to acquiring transactions with payment cards.

Thus, the use of the “agency model” by the Aggregator in a number of cases is questionable from a legal point of view and leads to an increased level of regulatory risk in the Aggregator’s activities.

2.2. Carrying out settlements without using an aggregator bank account

In practice, there is also a business model for the participation of an aggregator in the provision of payment services, in which its bank account is not used when making payments between the payer and the recipient of funds (supplier of goods (works, services).

With this method of conducting operations, the funds transfer scheme looks like this (see diagram 2)

Scheme 2. Carrying out settlements without using the aggregator’s bank account

Notes on the diagram:

1. The transfer is carried out at the expense of the payer’s funds in his bank account.

3. When transferring funds, the aggregator account is not used.

When using this scheme of interaction and transfer of funds, the aggregator, as a rule, has only one format for conducting operations - paid provision of services.

In this case, the aggregator acts as a party that provides only technical services to the online store. The activities of the aggregator under this scheme are regulated by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

According to Art. 779 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (part two), under a contract for the provision of paid services, the contractor undertakes, on the instructions of the customer, to provide services (perform certain actions or carry out certain activities), and the customer undertakes to pay for these services.

3. Regulation of the activities of aggregators

3.1. International experience in regulating non-banking organizations in the payment industry

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) study “Non-Banks in Retail Payments” (September 2014) defines non-banks as companies that are involved in providing retail payment services to consumers and whose business is not related to attracting deposits and providing credits and loans.

Non-banking organizations are involved in retail payments at all stages and at every stage of the payment process. Payment services allow non-banking organizations to achieve significant economic benefits by leveraging existing capabilities. Specific drivers of growth in activity for non-banking organizations in the field of retail payments today are:

· the trend of banks attracting outsourcing companies to provide payment services and related technologies;

· changes in payment habits and preferences of consumers, including the emergence of fundamentally new payment services on the market;

· technical and other innovations in payment methods and methods.

The risks faced by non-banks are similar in nature and impact to those in the banking industry, especially when non-banks provide payment services and services similar to banks to customers. However, there are significant differences in the existing regulation and approaches for banks and non-banking organizations to manage risks, which leads to significant differences in the policies and activities used to respond to threats and control risks in the banking and non-banking industries.

Although payments are clearly the domain of central bank regulation, its regulation in the international market for non-banking organizations is largely under the jurisdiction of the Bank for International Settlements Committee on Settlement and Payment Systems (rules and regulations, status of participants, licensing requirements, technical procedures for carrying out operations, etc.). Regulation for non-banking organizations also covers issues of risk management and risk control. For central banks, the wider involvement of non-banks in payments is becoming increasingly important, and therefore central banks are seeking to establish rules in this market.

The areas of regulation for non-banking organizations are more diverse and are not mutually exclusive compared to the regulation of banks. Below are several examples demonstrating different approaches to regulating payment transactions:

· non-banking organizations acquired banking licenses in accordance with legal requirements or on their own initiative: PayPal in the EU; international payment systems such as Visa or American Express in certain jurisdictions;

· non-banking organizations have a special status or licenses (different from banking licenses) to provide payment services: payment service institutions that are licensed in accordance with the EU Payment Services Directive; banking agents in Mexico; money transfer companies in various US states; Octopus in Hong Kong;

· non-banks are registered (by a central bank or other government body) but without significant administration: in the EU, payment service providers have been exempted from excess supervision based on compliance with established performance criteria;

· non-banking organizations are subject to supervision and regulation of central banks in the field of payment transactions and settlements: Mexican mobile payment clearing companies; Atos Worldline in Belgium; non-banking organizations operating in the Asia-Pacific region;

· non-banking organizations providing payment services as part of the outsourcing of part of the functions are indirectly regulated in a manner similar to that applied to outsourcing: settlement and clearing functions for certain check transactions in India; in the United States, banking supervisory authorities have the right to control the activities of non-banking organizations providing services to banks;

· non-banking organizations in certain jurisdictions do not have special regulation when conducting operations in the field of payment services and settlements.

3.2. Existing regulation of the activities of aggregators in the Russian Federation

To display the legal framework for regulating the activities of an aggregator, the following diagram can be drawn up.

Notes on the diagram:

1. blocks marked in green are directly related to the activities of the aggregator;

2. blocks marked in “yellow” are for informational purposes only in the activities of the aggregator.

On the territory of the Russian Federation, the organization and regulation of the provision of payment services is carried out in accordance with the Federal Law of June 27, 2011 No. 161-FZ (as amended on December 29, 2014) “On the National Payment System” (as amended and supplemented, entered into effective from 03/01/2015) (hereinafter referred to as Federal Law No. 161-FZ).

Federal Law No. 161-FZ establishes the basic terms in the field of payment services (including their identical interpretation), streamlines their application and use, and ensures unification, which generally increases the transparency of transactions in the field of payment services. At the same time, Article 3 of this Federal Law, which contains basic concepts for the purpose of regulating relations in the national payment system, does not define the entity (aggregator) that is an intermediary in the provision of payment services between the payer, the payer’s bank and the supplier of goods (work, services), not requirements have been established for the activities of this entity, including when transferring funds.

Thus, despite the fact that the Law “On NPS” is fundamental in the territory of the Russian Federation in the field of payment services, its provisions do not regulate activities aggregators because of its specifics, as well as the specifics of their role in the interaction scheme for the provision of payment services, which is a serious methodological omission in the regulatory sphere of the retail industry.

The legislation on the national payment system also does not contain such terms or definitions as “aggregator”, or “payment aggregator”, or “aggregator of payment services”.

A possible explanation for this omission may be the accelerated development of the payment services sector both in the world and in Russia, which does not allow us to immediately provide for all aspects of the activities of a particular player in the payments industry when developing legislative and regulatory documents.

Despite the fact that the AML/CFT Law (No. 115-FZ) is systemically important for the Russian financial market, the list of organizations (Article 5 of Law No. 115-FZ) subject to this law does not include an aggregator. This circumstance leads to a situation in which transactions between the aggregator and the online store are not regulated by the provisions of Law No. 115-FZ.

3.3. Aggregator Regulation and Operations

The situation with the regulation of the activities of aggregators has developed based on practical and historical prerequisites. At the same time, it is obvious that the aggregator cannot “bypass” or not apply general economic legislative and regulatory acts in its activities due to its functioning in the Russian legal field. At the same time, the aggregator actually ignores specialized legislative and regulatory acts due to the lack of mention of its operations and the aggregator itself as a subject of regulation by specific federal laws. This feature is more clearly visualized below in the interaction diagram.

The relationship between regulation and aggregator activities

Thus, aggregators are business entities operating on the territory of the Russian Federation within the framework of the existing legal framework of the Russian Federation.

Notes on the diagram:

· blocks marked in green have a one-way relationship: where laws determine the form and content of operations;

· blocks marked in “gray” do not actually affect the activity and may not be taken into account when carrying out operations.

Aggregators are not subject to regulation by the Law “On NPS” and are not subject to regulation and supervision of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the financial market regulator.

3.4. Possible directions for development of regulation of aggregator operations

Taking into account the analysis of international experience, the following possible options can be formulated.

Firstly, this is the development and implementation of a special set of regulatory documents that will regulate the activities of the aggregator. This path is a highly intensive way to implement regulation and, as a rule, allows one to achieve significant results in the presence of transparent relations in the regulated area. However, as international practice shows, it is used at later stages of development of the relevant industry entities and their infrastructure.

Secondly, one should consider the option of self-regulation of the activities of aggregators through self-organization of community members of this type of activity, both by creating associations of participants and through the evolutionary development of the regulatory framework. This method can be used if the participants are highly organized, have common goals and effective communications between the participants. At the current moment, the use of this method seems unrealistic for various reasons, including due to the heterogeneity of the development of the market for aggregator services.

Thirdly, the issue of including the activities of aggregators in the existing field of regulation of the entire industry of payment transactions and settlements within the national payment system should be considered. This path seems to be the most appropriate, both from the point of view of balance in regulatory approaches and the need to innovate the regulatory framework in the Russian Federation in terms of the activities of a payment service aggregator.

Considering that in most aggregator business models, the use of the aggregator’s bank account for making payments to the payer and service provider is the “cornerstone”, in order to minimize risks, it is necessary to consider establishing the mandatory use of accounts with special transaction modes by aggregators.

4 . Main conclusions

“Typical features” of an aggregator

1) Aggregators – young companies (legal entities that are not credit institutions), even large aggregators were created less than 5 years ago.

2) Aggregators - companies whose investments in fixed capital are insignificant (up to 100 thousand US dollars), and the value of the intellectual property used (intangible assets, developments and research) does not exceed 5% of the company’s balance sheet currency.

3) The business model (applied tariffs, volumes of operations) of aggregators makes it possible to achieve return on investment within 1 year.

4) Significant volumes of payment transactions pass through the services of aggregators (the annual total turnover of large Russian aggregators alone reaches several billion rubles). This leads to the presence of risks not controlled by regulators, since the activities of aggregators are carried out outside the perimeter of the legislation on the national payment system.

5) There are individual cases of transfer of owners of aggregator companies from Russian jurisdiction to offshore jurisdictions (this is also typical for large aggregators), which affects the transparency of aggregators doing business. However, this trend, in our opinion, is not directly related to the specifics of the activities of aggregators.

Aggregator business model

6) The aggregator’s business model has a certain variability, which has a significant impact on the approaches and ways of organizing the aggregator’s business. This variability lies in the choice of the method of organizing the aggregator’s operations: making payments directly with suppliers of goods (works, services) by transferring funds (received both from individuals - payers and from NPS entities) from your bank account to their bank accounts (hereinafter in the text – use of the aggregator’s bank account), or the provision of only information and technology services, without using the aggregator’s bank account for making payments.

Regulation and supervision of the activities of aggregators

7) General economic legislative acts (Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Law “On LLC”) have a direct impact on the activities of aggregators in the Russian Federation. The requirements of these legislative acts directly affect the form, features and content of contracts, agreements, and transactions concluded by aggregators with participants in the payment services market, and also establish general rules for the activities of aggregators as business entities in the Russian Federation.

8) It is necessary to include the activities of aggregators in the existing field of regulation of payment industry entities within the framework of the national payment system. This path seems to be the most appropriate in order to develop a uniform approach to the regulation of not only subjects of the national payment system, but also other organizations involved in the provision of payment services, the activities of which, in some cases, are currently carried out in violation of the norms of current legislation due to the lack of legal certainty.

9) Since the basic business model of the aggregator’s activities is built on the use of the aggregator’s bank account, through which funds are transferred between the payer and the service provider, to minimize risks (in addition to choosing a way to regulate the activities of aggregators), it is advisable to consider the use of bank accounts by aggregators with special transaction modes operations, such as escrow accounts.

10) Taking into account that, in accordance with the provisions of Article 3 of the Federal Law “On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)”, one of the important goals of the Bank of Russia is to ensure stability and development of the national payment system, control and supervision of the activities of aggregators in the payment industry it is advisable to entrust it to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

Aggregator (from Latin Aggregatio - “accumulation”) is a structure that aggregates, collects, groups objects into a higher-level category.

Payment system participants – bank, non-bank credit organization