Yandex

Dominant search and digital advertising platform in Russia and CIS, with 60%+ search market share

Yandex is Russia's largest technology company and search engine, commanding over 60% of the Russian search market. Founded in 1997 and publicly listed in 2011, Yandex has built one of the most comprehensive digital advertising ecosystems outside of the US-China duopoly, encompassing search advertising, display, programmatic, video, and mobile advertising across its vast network of owned properties and partner sites. Its advertising platform, Yandex Advertising Network (YAN), connects advertisers with hundreds of millions of users across Russia and the CIS region. Yandex's AdTech stack includes Yandex Direct (self-serve search and display advertising), Yandex Metrica (web analytics), Yandex Audience (data management and targeting), and a full-stack programmatic infrastructure including DSP and SSP capabilities. The company's deep integration of first-party data from its search engine, maps, e-commerce, ride-hailing, and media properties gives it unparalleled audience targeting capabilities in the Russian-speaking market. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Yandex underwent significant corporate restructuring. The company split into separate entities, with its core Russian businesses — including the advertising platform — remaining under a new Russian holding structure, while international assets were divested. The Russian advertising business continues to operate as a dominant force in the local market, though it faces Western sanctions and has been largely cut off from global AdTech partnerships and capital markets.