Yandex is the Google of Russia’s Internet World. Yandex is the largest Search Engine in Russia which also doubles up as a Web portal.

Available in two predominant variants www.ya.ru (lighter version) and www.yandex.ru, this Russian Search engine giant provides a common umbrella for a lot of services like Search Engine, Social Networking, News Updates and Online Payment among others.

Google in Russia

Google and Search engine are often used interchangeably by many people. It symbolizes Google’s dominance in the search engine field. Even after having nearly two third of the global search engine market, there are areas where the dominance of Google is challenged.

Russians for instance has Yandex amassing a massive 44% share of the Search Engine market while Google gets 34% in a survey conducted by Researcher ComScore.

Google penetrated Russia in 2006 with a 5% market share and have since gone along to occupy more than one third of the market share. A lot of steps have been taken by Google by Improving the Search Algorithms, Adaptation of the languages and Russian version of its popular Video Sharing and Map Services.

What Yandex is Aiming at?

Yandex is aware of the fast penetration of Google in Russian market. It has been taking several steps to be ready for its head-on competition with Google. Some of the important steps are as follows:

• Expected to list on Nasdaq for $ 2 billion, biggest IPO for Russia in Technology Sector till date. The company is valued at $ 5 billion.
• Yandex Money, a Net payment system, lets customers make online purchases using scratch cards bought at kiosks.
• Yandex is buying Smilink, a company that monitors traffic in Russian cities, in an effort to beef up its travel information services.
• Yandex in 2007 acquired MoiKrug.ru (“My Circle”), a social-networking site for businesspeople. The strategy is a major departure for Yandex, which has flourished by stressing its core search business.
• “Yandex concentrated on search and developed a really good engine,” says Vladimir Dolgov, head of Google Russia.

Russia’s Internet Usage Patterns

• Little more than 25 % Russians online
• Broadband penetration 10 %, predicted to triple by 2010
• Search related ads revenue expected to rise from $ 200 million in 2007 to $ 1 billion by 2010 – source Google

Yandex Background Info

• Started as a pet project of current CEO Arkady Volozh. Arkady developed a program to parse the complex grammar of the Russian language. He thought it would be useful for Search Engine Market, but his offer was denied by major internet portals.
• Started his own company and implemented it to provide users with high quality search results. Soon it unseated market leader Rambler.

Image Credits

• http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_27/b4091060426533.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yandex
• http://www.liveinternet.ru/stat/ru/searches.html

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