OREANDA-NEWS. October 08, 2012. Since September 2011, the traffic to the corporate website of Sberbank increased by more than 400%. Such rapid increase was primarily driven by the development of multimedia communications and interactive services implemented on the Internet resource of the bank, reported the press-centre of Sberbank.

Over the year, based on the analysis of visitors' needs, Sberbank's website implemented a series of changes aimed at improving its information value and usability. These changes include weekly polls involving dozens of thousands of users; live broadcasts of the Sberbank's most significant events in Russian and English; Sberblog, the corporate blog of Sberbank, and multimedia press center.

During recent London Olympics, as part of "Big Game", a special TV project, Sberbank's website covered the most interesting events in Russia.Sochi.Park, the Russian Olympic site in London.

In September 2012, the multimedia component of the bank's website was reinforced by the release of video series "How Sberbank is Changing" that represents a new format in banking practice. It is built on recognition and demonstration by Sberbank of the current problems encountered by its customers. Just in 10 days, the first three episodes ("Waiting in line", "Phishing" and "Branches") were viewed more than 250 thousand times.

"It is hard to overestimate the effectiveness of multimedia communications, – said Yuri Rovensky, Vice President – Director of Public Relations Department, Sberbank of Russia. – According to the studies, 90% people prefer to get information in the video rather than text format. In average, visitors spend 6 times more time on the website featuring multimedia than on those without multimedia. Further development of interactive features and multimedia are the priorities for Sberbank's website."

The website of Sberbank is the most visited bank website in Russia and it is ranked among one hundred most popular sites in the Russian segment of the Internet. In 2012, Sberbank's website received two important awards – international and Russian. The website of Sberbank was ranked as the top site among Russian companies by FT Bowen Craggs Index of Corporate Website Effectiveness prepared by Bowen Craggs & Co, a respected consulting company. Sberbank's website was at 37th place well ahead of two other Russian companies included in the rating – Gazprom (46) and Rosneft (70). Sberbank has significantly improved its website since 2009, when it was ranked as 60th in the same rating.

In addition, Sberbank's retail internet bank Sberbank Online was ranked first by Internet Banking Rank 2012, which is the result of a comprehensive study of Russian Internet banking services in largest Russian banks. Sberbank Online was the only internet bank rated А, which means that the internet bank is a "true and complete" substitute for the physical branch.