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Yandex

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Yandex LLC is a major Russian technology company. It provides many internet-related products and services. These include a web browser and a search engine. The company also offers cloud computing and web mapping. People use Yandex for online food ordering and shopping. It even runs a ridesharing company.

Yandex Logo
Yandex Logo

Yandex Search is the largest search engine in Russia. It holds an estimated 72% market share there. Globally, it holds a 2.8% market share. Yandex Taxi is the largest ridesharing company in Russia. This company connects many different digital tools into one large system.

The company operates through various specialized digital services. It uses search algorithms to find information for users. It also provides streaming media services. Yandex Music offers a huge catalogue of music. This includes 800,000 tracks from 58,000 performers. The company also developed YandexGPT. This is a generative neural network. A neural network is a computer system modeled after the brain.

Yandex main office
Yandex main office

It works similarly to the ChatGPT system. Yandex also builds physical hardware. They created Yandex.Station, which is a smart speaker. They have even tested self-driving cars in Moscow.

Yandex has grown through many different types of business moves. It often acquires other companies to expand. In 2007, it bought the social network moikrug.ru. In 2010, it invested in the company Face.com. In 2012, Yandex received shares of Facebook in return for its stake. The company also grows by creating new divisions. For example, it spun off its self-driving car division, known as Yandex SDG. It also spun off a company called Clickhouse. These different parts allow the company to work on many technologies at once.

The history of Yandex began with a simple idea. In 1990, Arkady Volozh contacted his high school friend, Ilya Segalovich. They wanted to develop algorithms to search Russian texts. They worked under the name Arcadia. In 1993, they created the name "Yandex." This was a pun on "Yet Another iNDEXer." It was also a bilingual pun. In Russian, "ya" means "I." They officially launched the Yandex.ru search engine on September 23, 1997. They presented it at the Softool exhibition in Moscow.

Financial milestones have shaped the company's scale. In 2000, Baring Vostok Capital Partners acquired a 35.72% stake. They paid $5.28 million for this ownership. In 2011, Yandex had a massive initial public offering on NASDAQ. It raised $1.3 billion in that offering. This was the largest dot-com offering since Google in 2004. The company has also made very large purchases. In 2014, it bought Auto.ru for $175 million. In 2021, it bought a stake in a self-driving division for $1 billion.

Yandex main office, Moscow, under construction 20240901 113940
Yandex main office, Moscow, under construction 20240901 113940

Recent years brought major changes to the company's structure. In 2019, the Russian government required a corporate restructure. This gave more influence to board members. In July 2024, international sanctions caused a major transaction. The Dutch holding company, Nebius Group, owned Yandex. Due to restrictions on foreign ownership, it sold its Russian assets. A group of Russian investors bought these assets. The sale price was a discounted $5.3 billion. This group includes investors like Alexander Chachava and Pavel Prass. It also includes the company Lukoil.

Yandex connects many different fields of modern technology. It links search engines with advertising networks like Yandex.Direct. It connects transportation through Yandex Taxi and self-driving car research. It even links commerce with food delivery and online shopping. The company's reach extends to many countries. It has had offices in Ukraine, Turkey, Israel, and China. It also opened a large international office in Belgrade. These connections show how one company can impact many parts of daily life.

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File:Yandex main office.jpg
Yandex main office.jpg
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File:Yandex Logo.svg
Yandex Logo.svg
File:Yandex main office, Moscow, under construction 20240901 113940.jpg
Yandex main office, Moscow, under...
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