Artifact · Digital Market Entry · Almaty
We help foreign brands enter the CIS and Central Asia.
We find partners who represent your brand and sell it in the region.
Almaty, Kazakhstan: a neutral base for a market of 150M+ people that shares one working business language across the CIS and Central Asia.
A minute from the ground: Central Asia through our lens.
Every frame shot by our own team. No stock footage.
Who we are
Artifact is a market entry agency in Almaty, Kazakhstan. We help foreign manufacturers find distributors in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and the wider CIS.
We only work with companies, not individual consumers. We know this region from the inside: how its buyers search, what earns their trust, and how deals actually get done.
- 2011
- in the CIS and Central Asian market since, from Almaty
- 1,000+
- clients in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belarus
- 100+
- sites built and promoted
- 10+
- years of industrial video, filmed on site
A few categories we turn down regardless of budget: gambling, weapons, drugs, fur and leather.
Journal
How to find a distributor in the CIS when nobody here has heard of your brand
A piece with figures: what a distributor actually does, why he asks about your budget, and what to have in hand before the first email to him.
What we do
Three services, by stage of the work
Month one: the site, the social accounts, SEO, the strategy, a first read of the market, photo and video. From month two: posts, ads, mailings, cold outreach, inquiries and negotiations. Month one costs half, because none of it is visible from outside yet.
- 01
Setup and market check
The month we build everything: a site in Russian, the company profile, social accounts, SEO, the marketing strategy, a first read of demand and competitors, photo and video. Half rate, because none of it is live yet.
- 02
Promotion and distributor search
From month two everything goes live: posts, targeted and search ads, mailings, cold outreach to distributors, inquiry handling and negotiations, a report every month.
- 03
Local digital presence
A site, content and channels in the language the region's buyers read, on the platforms they use, findable in Google, Yandex and the answer engines.
How we work
How we work, step by step
We dive into your brand, your target audience, and the competitors already in this market, then build the entry strategy around what we find.
Small products get shipped to us and shot with actors. For factories and larger operations, we either work from your existing video and files or travel and shoot on-site.
Site copy, video, ad creative: we produce every asset in the language the region's 150M+ business audience actually shares, never translated in as an afterthought.
A site and social channels, matched to the platforms your audience is actually on. We back the choice with data, not default convention.
Ads go live to test real demand. We handle and screen first inquiries locally, so only real interest reaches you.
Your own rep takes over for negotiation. We stay on as translator and intermediary for as long as you need.
From Pilot to Growth
Month one is setup: the site, the accounts, the strategy, the content and the campaigns get built, but nothing is live yet, so the work cannot be seen. That is why it costs half. From month two the whole machine runs at the full rate, for as long as we work together.
Pilot
SetupFrom $5,000 / mo
By the end of the month the site, the accounts, the content and the campaigns exist and belong to you.
For brands entering the region: everything gets built before anything goes live.
Strategy
- Company profile & positioning
- Marketing strategy & content plan
- First market read: demand, competitors
- Distributor map by country
Infrastructure
- Site in Russian + SEO
- Social accounts in buyers' channels
- Photo & video content
- B2B copy & materials
Ready to launch
- Ad accounts & campaigns built
- Mailing lists & outreach sequences
- Distributor list for cold outreach
- Everything switches on in month 2
Ad budget: from $1,000 / mo for one or two countries; more markets need more budget.
Growth
RunningFrom $10,000 / mo
The same engagement at the full rate: everything built in month one now runs every day.
Content & channels
- Posts, video & stories every week
- Site updated with cases & answers
- Comments & inbox answered in the channels
- New channels as the first ones answer
Advertising
- Targeted ads: Instagram, TikTok, Telegram
- Search ads in Google & Yandex
- Budgets, bids & creatives managed
- Weekly numbers: clicks, cost, inquiries
Distributors & inquiries
- Mailings & cold outreach in Russian
- Inquiry handling & screening
- Negotiations with your representative
- Monthly report, new countries
(depending on scope, number of platforms, geography, ad budgets, and business goals)
Continues, no fixed end date
Cases
Our work
Real B2B work: the brief, the build, and the result.
B2B case study2024 to nowiker: woodworking manufacturer
- Turnover in six months of 2026: from 800M to 1B tenge
- ×2
- Targeted views
- 1.2M+
Build brand image, recognition and trust for iker within this B2B segment, and generate a pipeline of qualified partnership leads.
Corporate filmPublishedPeschansky Repair-Mechanical Plant
- Format
- Corporate film
- Sector
- Industrial
Produce a corporate film for the Peschansky Repair-Mechanical Plant: telling the story of the plant, its people, and its capabilities for a B2B audience.
On location
Shot on the ground: plants, mines, control rooms
Frames from our own shoots across the region. Every one taken by our crew.
Open-pit mine from the rim01 
Worker in protective suit at a bagging line02 
Our videographer shooting a control panel wall03 
Excavator loading a haul truck in the pit04 
Worker in respirator in front of bulk bags05 
Forklift carrying a bulk bag through a plant hall06 
Our photographer on a plant walkway07 
Welder crouching in a cloud of smoke08
Scroll to move through the frames
Markets
Kazakhstan to Armenia: what each market asks of a foreign brand.
One business language, a different set of rules in every country. Each page below holds the figures that matter for entry, each traced to its source, including the market where we say plainly that we do not work.
- Kazakhstan$64.8Bof goods imported in 2025, up 7.4% on the year, per the Bureau of National Statistics
Kazakhstan: the wide door into Central Asia, with a queue already at it
Updated 12 September 2026 - Uzbekistan$47.4Bof imports in 2025, growing 18.5% a year, per the National Statistics Committee
Uzbekistan: the region's growth market, outside the customs union
Updated 12 September 2026 - Kyrgyzstan81%of the country's foreign trade is imports: $13.0 billion in 2025, per the National Statistical Committee
Kyrgyzstan: a market that imports four dollars of every five it trades
Updated 12 September 2026 - Tajikistan$8.3Bof imports in 2025, up 18.5% in a year and close to 78% of all the country trades, per the statistics agency
Tajikistan: imports are 78% of trade, but brands enter through the neighbours
Updated 18 September 2026 - Azerbaijan$24.4Bof imports in 2025, up 15.8% in a year, faster than anywhere else in the region, per the State Customs Committee
Azerbaijan: imports are growing, but the EAEU certificate does not travel here
Updated 18 September 2026 - Armenia$13.0Bof imports in 2025, but 43% of the 2024 import bill was precious metals moving straight back out, per the Statistical Committee
Armenia: why $13 billion of imports is not the size of the market
Updated 18 September 2026 - Turkmenistan5.1%of the population is on social media: 388 thousand people out of 7.65 million, per DataReportal
Turkmenistan: the state does the buying here, and we do not work this market
Updated 18 September 2026
Drag to explore
Discuss your project
Six questions, then a first read from us
Countries, where you are based, current distribution, timeline. We reply within one business day with what is realistic.