Valeriy Ostrikov opened July 6th briefing with a look at the broader financial landscape. Recent reporting has highlighted trouble among large private asset management firms, including cases in Switzerland where funds saw sharp declines and were unable to meet investor withdrawal requests. He linked this to wider instability in equity markets, with NASDAQ softness tied to a debt crisis and ongoing global economic pressure.
His core point: the platform economy — businesses built around artificial intelligence and network effects — represents a growth sector developing somewhat independently of these conditions. Gem Space and Gem Team belong to that category, with value tied to data, user activity, and AI-driven monetization rather than solely to traditional market cycles. Progress may be slower in certain regions during turbulent periods, but the underlying growth trend hasn’t reversed.
Ostrikov also outlined a broader shift the team is tracking: from platforms that simply aggregate users toward an era of AI agents layered on top of those platforms — which the team believes will make monetization of individual knowledge, skills, and creative ability considerably more effective at scale.
Product Updates: July 2 Release
Alexander Kachanovskiy walked through what shipped last week:
- Custom chat backgrounds — live on mobile (Profile → Settings → Appearance) and web (three-dot menu in any chat), with designer options, light/dark themes, or a personal photo per chat
- Birthday reminders for contacts, already adopted by thousands of users
- ~15% performance improvement app-wide
- Adjustable video playback speed in chats
- Return to the standard app icon following the platform’s 10-year anniversary celebration
- Ongoing bug fixes on a rolling basis
Custom call sounds are planned for a future release, expected around August.
Mini-App Platform: Officially Live
The mini-app engine officially launched on July 1st. The first app available is Quiz Gem, a trivia game with multiple modes and categories, accessible through the Mini Apps tab in the catalog on both mobile and web.
Beyond the team’s own apps — several more are in development and due for approval this week — the platform is now open to third-party developers. A dedicated Mini App Bot walks developers through setup with built-in guidance, and no programming background is required to publish an idea, a store, or original content as a mini app inside Gem Space.
Strategically, this means thousands of existing apps and mini apps from outside developers, along with small and medium business owners, can now be hosted directly on the platform. Combined with the upcoming PayGem wallet, financial flows moving through mini apps will generate commissions — a core income stream for investors going forward.
Monetization Roadmap: PayGem and Gem Premium
PayGem wallet is scheduled to launch in September. At launch, it will support global payments via Google Pay and Apple Pay, with acquiring for Mir, Visa, and Mastercard cards to serve Russian users and residents who currently lack these payment options. Cryptocurrency support is planned as a later addition, not part of the September launch.
Alongside PayGem, the team is preparing Gem Premium, also targeted for September — a paid tier adding higher video and call quality, larger conference capacity, AI-based bots, and an invisible online status, without removing any functionality from the free version.
Spaces Redesign
A Spaces update is planned for release on July 9th, reorienting Spaces toward businesses and content creators. The update introduces templates by business type to simplify setup, and redesigns profiles so visitors can immediately see who owns a Space and what it offers.
AI Tools
AI-based tools, bots, and agents were covered in the previous two conferences and will be detailed further next Monday. In the meantime, multilingual news bot channels (Russian, Spanish, and English) remain live through the World Cup period and beyond, serving as a real-time test of the team’s AI tooling.
Investor and Acquisition Interest
The team continues to receive acquisition inquiries roughly weekly, each handled under NDA, so specific counterparties can’t be named. Two recent examples: an inquiry from a company in Milan, Italy on July 3rd to begin negotiations, and a separate offer from an Israeli company the week prior. No agreement on price has been reached in either case, and talks are ongoing. The team frames these inquiries as a signal of real market interest rather than a confirmed near-term outcome.
Looking Ahead: What Funding Determines
PayGem, mini apps, Gem Premium, AI tools, and the redesigned business Spaces are all active workstreams — the pace at which they ship depends on available funding for the team behind them, including the marketing and advertising spend needed to bring users and business clients onto the new features. The roadmap and expertise are in place; additional investor funding is what determines how quickly it’s executed.
Stay informed — join our Angels Team channel in Gem Space.
Comments are closed