Yandex Logo

In 1997, Arkady Volozh, Arkady Borkovsky, and Ilya Segalovich founded Yandex in Moscow. A year later, they launched the first search engine for the Internet, designed specifically for Russian. In the 2000s, Yandex expanded beyond search to include maps, navigation, email, and cloud storage.

2011 was a watershed year for Yandex: it debuted on the NASDAQ, and its value exceeded $8 billion. In the decade that followed, the company expanded into e-commerce, transportation solutions, and food delivery services.

In 2022, Yandex became Russia’s premier tech giant and a dominant force in internet services. The company’s search engine holds more than half of the Russian market. Although the company has opened more than 25 offices worldwide, it remains focused on markets where Russian is widely spoken.

Arkady Volozh, one of the company’s founders, serves as CEO. In many circles, Yandex is often compared to Google, given its prominence in Russia. However, Yandex offers a wide range of services beyond search. However, the company’s path has not always been smooth: it faces increasing competition, especially from technology giant Google, and challenges from changing government regulation of the Internet.