Yandex Logo

In 1997, Yandex, founded by Arkady Volozh, Arkady Borkovsky, and Ilya Segalovich, emerged in Moscow. A year later, they introduced the first search engine for the Internet, specially designed for the Russian language. In the 2000s, Yandex went beyond just a search engine to a variety of services, including maps, navigation, email, and cloud storage.

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

In 2022, Yandex has become Russia’s premier tech giant and a dominant force in the internet services sector. The company’s search engine holds more than half of the Russian market. Although the company has opened more than 25 offices around the world, its main focus remains on markets that are fluent in Russian.

Arkady Volozh, one of the company’s founders, heads the company as CEO. In many circles, Yandex is often compared to Google, given its prominence in Russia. However, Yandex is characterized by a wide range of services, offering more than just search functions. 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.