The Russian search giant Yandex, a site of multi-purpose design, has made quite a bit of news as of late. Eight years of growth has allow its revenue to increase from about $400,000 to a reported $167 million in 2007. And as we let known earlier this year, the company, currently comprised of some 1,200 employees, plans to introduce itself on the NASDAQ stock exchange this autumn.
The most recent profile of the company comes from the Times of London, which seems to peg it squarely against Google. In short, Times reporter Mark Franchetti, with Yandex co-founder and chief executive Arkady Volozh taking to the spotlight, paints the company as a serious challenge to the Mountain View, CA-based Web giant on the Eurasian landscape. For one, it commandeers 55% of the Russian market. Google, on the other hand, holds 21%.
The challenges posed by both forces are in fact quite interesting to observe at present. Google just last month purchased a Russian contextual ad firm by the name of Begun, formerly a Rambler Media property, for $140 million. Presumably it was in order to capitalize on solid growth in Russia's Internet sector as well as invest in a greater percentage of the search pie in the region. At least while the taking is still good, anyway. Though Google holds a portion less than half the size of Yandex, its position is not so firmly set in place as it is in more Western reaches of the world.
Of course, Yandex recognizes this fact, and so it is wasting no time to push hard for its own growth. That goes as much for the Russian market as places outside its border. It was said just this week that Yandex has significantly upgraded its data connections to Ukraine. And earlier still, it make it a point to mention upgrades to its search engine to support so-called world standards and enhance users’ access to video to better compete with the ever-advancing Google.
That said, there’s no question Yandex is capitalizing fully on Russia’s measured ascent in Internet development. According to Quintura, a search company itself, Yandex has become something of a household name in its home state, and in so doing intends to go so far as to refresh its logo to an entirely Cyrillic designation, rather than the largely English-language label it has maintained.