Izvestia · Izvestia · June 2023

Large and Small Business Cooperation as a Driver of the Digital Economy

Large business can and should create conditions in which small business gets access to technologies, data, and markets it cannot reach alone. This isn't charity — it's an investment in an ecosystem where everyone wins.

— Elina Isagulova, VP at VK

SPIEF-2023: SMEs at the Center of the Agenda

At the 2023 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, small and medium-sized business occupied one of the central places in the discussion program. Elina Isagulova spoke at the session "Culture of Large Business Interaction with SME Entities" — a topic that had become central to her years of work at VK.

The potential of SMEs is enormous: with adequate digital and institutional support, small business could account for up to 40% of employment and 25% of Russia's GDP. The current share is significantly lower — and the gap is largely explained by unequal access to technologies and markets.

Three Working Models of Cooperation

• Platform access. Through VK, an entrepreneur in a small town can target advertising to 81.5 million users with the same precision as a federal retailer.
• Ecosystem integration. Large players open their infrastructure — logistics, payment services, CRM — to partners. Entrepreneurs don't need to build this from scratch.
• Knowledge transfer. VK, banks, and government bodies jointly create educational infrastructure that lowers the entry threshold into the digital economy.

Competition Gives Way to Cooperation

One of Isagulova's most unexpected arguments: large platforms have stopped competing for the entrepreneur as "their" client — and are beginning to jointly create conditions for their growth. Marketplaces, banks, geo-services, and social networks are building intersecting ecosystems rather than closed islands. For entrepreneurs, this means the ability to use multiple platforms simultaneously.

The State as Catalyst

Isagulova named public-private partnership as the key condition for scaling. VK's agreements with regions — Moscow Oblast, Udmurtia, Tatarstan, Chuvashia — showed that when platform technologies meet regional business support infrastructure, results exceed what either side can achieve alone. The state should not replace the market — but it can create conditions in which the market works for all participants.