Yandex Key Stats
- 2024 Revenue: 1.1 trillion Russian rubles ($12.3 billion), a 37% increase from 2023
- Russia Search Market Share: 72% of all search queries, dominating over Google
- Global Search Market Share: 2.8% worldwide, ranking third after Google and Bing
- Employees: Over 28,000 people across multiple countries
- NASDAQ IPO: Raised $1.3 billion in May 2011, the largest internet IPO since Google
Yandex LLC stands as Russia’s largest technology company and operates the dominant search engine in Russian-speaking countries. The company provides internet search, online advertising, e-commerce, ride-hailing, food delivery, and cloud computing services.
Headquartered in Moscow, Yandex serves millions of users across Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and other CIS nations. The company went public on NASDAQ in 2011, raising $1.3 billion in what became the biggest internet IPO since Google.
Beyond search, Yandex built an ecosystem of services including Yandex.Taxi, Yandex.Music, Yandex.Market, and the Alice voice assistant. In 2024, the Dutch holding company sold its Russian assets to a domestic consortium for $5.4 billion amid international sanctions.
Yandex History
Yandex Co-founders
Born in 1964 in Kazakhstan, Volozh studied applied mathematics at Gubkin University in Moscow. He founded CompTek in 1989 and co-created the Yandex search technology with Segalovich in 1993. Volozh served as CEO until 2022 when he resigned following EU sanctions. He currently leads Nebius Group, the international spinoff company.
Born in 1964, Segalovich was a childhood friend of Volozh from Kazakhstan. He proposed the name Yandex and served as Chief Technology Officer from 2000 until his death in 2013. Segalovich developed the core search algorithms that enabled Yandex to understand Russian language morphology with its complex word endings.
Yandex Competitors
Yandex faces competition from global search giants and regional technology companies. In Russia, Yandex holds approximately 72% market share compared to Google’s 26%. Globally, Google dominates with over 90% share while Yandex maintains around 2.8%.
| Company | Headquarters | Primary Market | Market Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain View, USA | Global | World’s largest search engine with 90%+ global share | |
| Baidu | Beijing, China | China | Dominant Chinese search engine with 75% local share |
| Microsoft Bing | Redmond, USA | Global | Second largest global search engine with AI integration |
| DuckDuckGo | Paoli, USA | Global | Privacy-focused search engine with growing user base |
| Yahoo | Sunnyvale, USA | Global | Legacy search provider powered by Bing technology |
| VK (Mail.ru) | Moscow, Russia | Russia, CIS | Russian tech conglomerate with competing services |
| Rambler | Moscow, Russia | Russia | Russian web portal with search and media services |
| Naver | Seongnam, South Korea | South Korea | Dominant Korean search engine and web platform |
| Ecosia | Berlin, Germany | Global | Environmental search engine planting trees with ad revenue |
| Seznam | Prague, Czech Republic | Czech Republic | Leading Czech search engine competing with Google locally |
Yandex Revenue
Yandex generated 1.1 trillion Russian rubles ($12.3 billion) in 2024, marking a 37% increase from the previous year. The e-commerce, mobility, and delivery segment contributes over 50% of total revenue, surpassing the traditional search and advertising business.
Revenue growth accelerated despite the 2024 corporate restructuring that separated Russian and international operations. Management forecasts at least 30% revenue growth in 2025.
Yandex Market Cap
Yandex trades on the Moscow Exchange under the YDEX ticker with a market capitalization of approximately 411 billion rubles ($4.3 billion) as of December 2025. The company previously traded on NASDAQ until trading was halted in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 2024 corporate split significantly impacted valuation as the Dutch holding company sold Russian assets at a substantial discount. The international business now operates as Nebius Group.
Yandex Acquisitions
Yandex built its technology ecosystem through strategic acquisitions spanning search, transportation, e-commerce, and entertainment. The company’s acquisition strategy focused on expanding beyond search into high-growth consumer services.
The 2017 merger with Uber’s Russian operations created a ride-hailing powerhouse valued at $3.8 billion. Yandex held 59% of the combined venture while Uber retained 37%. This partnership gave Yandex access to Uber’s technology and global expertise while Uber gained a dominant position in the Russian market without direct operational involvement.
In 2021, Yandex paid $1 billion to acquire Uber’s stakes in the self-driving division, food delivery service Yandex.Eats, grocery delivery Yandex.Lavka, and logistics platform Yandex.Delivery. This transaction gave Yandex complete control over its food technology businesses during a period of rapid pandemic-driven growth in delivery services.
The company completed its Uber exit in 2023 by purchasing the remaining 29% stake in the mobility joint venture for $925 million. This price represented a significant discount from the original $1.8-2 billion option price due to Uber’s accelerated exit following the Ukraine conflict.
In 2018, Yandex partnered with Sberbank to develop the Yandex.Market e-commerce platform. The joint venture ended in 2020 when Yandex acquired full ownership of Yandex.Market while selling its stake in Yandex.Money payment service to Sberbank.
The 2022 asset exchange with VK brought Delivery Club food delivery service to Yandex in exchange for the Zen content platform and News service. This swap consolidated Yandex’s position in food delivery while divesting media assets that faced regulatory pressure.
Earlier acquisitions included KinoPoisk movie database in 2013, Auto.ru automotive marketplace in 2014 for $175 million, and Foodfox food delivery in 2017. These purchases expanded Yandex’s consumer services portfolio and advertising inventory.
