Yandex

Yandex LLC is a Russian technology firm offering internet services such as a browser, search engine, cloud tools, maps, food delivery, streaming, shopping, and ride-hailing. Its search engine holds about 72% of the Russian market and 2.8% globally, while its taxi service is the largest in Russia. Founded by Arkady Volozh, Yandex debuted its search engine in 1997. The company’s extensive media presence has long attracted government pressure for control. In July 2024, due to sanctions linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and foreign ownership restrictions, Nebius Group—the Dutch holding company that owned Yandex—sold all its Russian assets to a consortium of Russian investors for a discounted $5.3 billion.

In 1990, Volozh reached out to high school friend Ilya Segalovich to join his work on Russian text search algorithms. They created search software under the name Arcadia. By 1993, they coined "Yandex" as shorthand for "Yet Another iNDEXer," also a pun on the Russian word "ya" (meaning "I") and "index." On September 23, 1997, the Yandex.ru search engine launched at Moscow’s Softool exhibition. In 1998, it introduced contextual ads. In 2000, Yandex incorporated in Cyprus as an independent entity.

Arcadia merged into CompTek, a software and hardware supplier, with Volozh as CEO in 2000. That year, Baring Vostok Capital Partners bought 35.72% of the company for $5.28 million. In 2001, Yandex launched its Yandex.Direct ad network. It turned profitable in 2003. Between 2004 and 2006, Tiger Technologies acquired an 11% stake. In September 2005, Yandex opened a Ukrainian office and website. In 2007, it launched a customized Ukrainian search engine and opened a Kyiv development center. In 2008, it quintupled bandwidth between Moscow data centers and Ukraine’s UA-IX. By 2009, all www.yandex.ua services were localized for Ukraine. In 2010, it introduced the "Poltava" search algorithm for Ukrainian users, based on MatrixNet technology. In March 2007, Yandex bought the Russian social network moikrug.ru.

In June 2008, Yandex formed Yandex Labs in Silicon Valley, led by Vishal Makhijani, to advance search and ad tech. That same month, it acquired Russian traffic monitor SMILink, later merged into Yandex Maps. In September 2008, it bought the rights to Punto Switcher, a keyboard layout switcher. In January 2009, Firefox 3.5 made Yandex the default search provider for Russian-language builds, replacing Google (Google returned in 2012).

In May 2010, Yandex launched an English-only search engine. In September 2010, it debuted Yandex Music, a streaming service with 800,000 tracks from 58,000 artists. That month, it invested $4.3 million in Face.com (formerly Vizi Labs), later acquired by Facebook in 2012, yielding Yandex $5.7 million and 142,479 Facebook shares. In December 2010, Yandex launched Yandex.Start to support startups and bought WebVisor’s behavior analysis tech. In January 2011, it acquired single sign-in service Loginza. On May 24, 2011, Yandex N.V. (now Nebius Group) raised $1.3 billion in a NASDAQ IPO—the largest dot-com IPO since Google’s in 2004. At that time, Baring Vostok held 35% and Tiger Technologies 15%.

In June 2011, Yandex and Rambler struck an ad network deal to block competitors. In August 2011, it bought news startup The Tweeted Times. In September 2011, it launched a Turkish web portal and opened an Istanbul office. That month, it invested $15 million for 10% of Blekko as part of a $30 million round. In November 2011, it acquired SPB Software for $38 million. In March 2012, Yandex opened its first European office in Lucerne for EU ad clients. In June 2012, it bought 25% of Seismotech for $1 million. In October 2012, it launched a Chromium-based browser. In November 2012, it released a mapping service for Europe and the U.S. In March 2013, it added an English interface to its translation app. In July 2013, Mail.Ru began placing Yandex Direct ads on its search pages. In October 2013, it acquired KinoPoisk, Russia’s largest movie search engine. By 2013, Yandex became Russia’s top media property by revenue. In 2014, it opened a European R&D office in Berlin. In February 2014, it invested several million dollars in MultiShip. In March 2014, it bought Israeli geolocation startup KitLocate and opened an Israeli R&D office. In May 2014, it invested in SalesPredict, an Israeli sales prediction firm. In June 2014, it acquired Auto.ru, an online marketplace.