Russian Search Giant Yandex Acquires Social News Startup ‘The Tweeted Times’ Yandex, one of the leading Internet companies in Russia, has acquired startup venture The Tweeted Times, which enables people to create custom online ‘newspapers’ generated from their Twitter accounts.
Financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed, but Yandex says it aims to continue offering the social news service and that the entire The Tweeted Times team will be joining the search engine company. The Tweeted Times was co-founded by Maxim Grinev and Maria Grineva, both computer scientists at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and others. Its users include celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Alyssa Milano and Lance Weiler. Yandex, which went public last May and is currently valued at just shy of $10 billion, plans to use technologies acquired from The Tweeted Times to boost its search and content services with information from social networks. Not so fast Google – Rambler and Yandex sign ad network deal to freeze out Russian competitors. Google’s search market share in Russia remains well below 50% and it’s about to get even more heat.
Russian search giant Yandex is now partnering with Russian online media giant Rambler over search and advertising services. Starting today, Rambler’s search services will be powered by Yandex’s search engine and Rambler will join Yandex’s Ad Network, Yandex.Direct. Right now the Yandex Ad Network counts Odnoklassniki, Mail.ru and even Bing.com among its portfolio of client sites in Russia. Sites using Yandex’s search technology include Livejournal.ru, Nigma.ru and Qip.ru. Ads placed via Yandex.Direct can now run in Rambler’s search results, as well as on its content pages.
Rambler’s portal claims 4.2 million users, 14% of the Russian internet audience. Yandex is said to have 64.8% of all search traffic in Russia According to LiveInternet, with a monthly audience of over 40 million unique visitors (according to comScore, May 2011). What does a Russian startup look like? Just like one in the Valley. Russia’s startup scene is still growing but with a potential market size of 170 million users in the next 18 months, it’s white hot.
There remain hurdles – like payment mechanisms and door-to-door delivery in a market known for corruption in the postal servce. But these are gradually being eroded by entrepreneurs. Yesterday I had lunch with a VC who hits Moscow once a month now, such is the potential for even ‘normal’ business models like old fashioned e-commerce. Meanwhile, there are lots of categories in Russia waiting to be filled and one of them is travel. Ostrovok.ru is still being built right now, and remains in private beta. And CEO Kirill Makharinsky is an experienced Russia/British entrepreneur who knows what he’s doing. Runet: Why the Russian internet doesn't need the West. But Yandex, like Google, has not just limited itself to providing speedy and relevant search results.
It also provides Yandex Maps, Yandex Money (an e-payments system) and Yandex Photos. The list continues, but it has also come up with digital services bespoke for Russia’s needs, such as a phone app which shows where the traffic jams are occurring throughout the intensely congested streets of Moscow and beyond. In every taxi I took, before I decided to abandon the traffic and take to the beautiful underground system, the driver was held mesmerised by a combination of Yandex Maps and the Yandex traffic app. Facebook is not even the most popular social network in Russia, despite its phenomenal global growth. Instead, Russians flock to Mail.ru-owned MoiMir (MyWorld) or vKontakte, which Mail.Ru also owns a 25 per cent stake in. A similar pattern emerges with the consumption of blogs and digital media. Are you interested in a career in new media?