The Financial Times (FT) reports that Russia’s largest mobile operator MTS is to focus heavily on the apps market as a future revenue growth driver and is prepared to open its doors to the country’s community of computer hackers to increase the quality of its app offering. 

Russia reportedly produces 70,000 computer programming graduates a year but a notorious minority join the hacker community.

“Russia has about 3 per cent of the world’s internet users, but seemingly a much larger share of the world’s hackers, spammers and cybercrime. One benefit [of our efforts] may be the creation of more legitimate opportunities for this abundance of talent,” Josh Tulgan, head of investor relations with MTS, told the FT. Marc Sommer, products director at the operator, added: “Whether you’re a professional developer or a high school kid, the aim is to treat everyone equally.” When asked about hackers, Sommer replied: “If you can programme in HTML5 you can design apps. We don’t discriminate.”

According to the FT report, MTS will host meetings across Russia and internationally, hoping to interest Russian language programmers in writing for the Vodafone 360 app store. With mobile penetration in the country now at 157 percent (according to Wireless Intelligence), it is clear that apps could be the next revenue driver for Russian operators. Indeed, MTS projects the Russian market for mobile apps and games will be worth US$246 million by 2013.