пятница, 5 июня 2009 г.

Why Yandex is so powerful in Russia

Почти год назад объяснял коллеге из Штатов почему Яндекс так уверенно держится в Рунете (им это, знаете ли, правда интересно).
Думаю расположенные ниже 5 пунктов не устарели и сейчас.
Переведу на русский в скором времени.

What determines Search engine share:
- Search Quality
- Marketing and pr
- List of services
- Habits

Several reasons why Yandex will survive and even increase its share in
Russian market:
1) Digital distribution
- branded Firefox 3.0
- software Punto Switcher
- Yandex tool bar
- presence in most web-sites dedicated to software (on-site and
inside the program as toolbar)

Comment: After Yandex started to pay attention to digital distribution
(example: Firefox with Yandex toolbar inside), Google share increase
almost stopped

2) Yahoo business model - portal building (orienting on customer
needs)
- Yandex Traffic http://probki.yandex.ru/
- Yandex Auto http://auto.yandex.ru/
- Yandex Entertainment (placard) http://afisha.yandex.ru/
- and many others...

Comment: Yandex constantly works on existing services and develops
new.
Latest rumors said that they will launch they own Financial service in
the nearest future.

3) Comparable search quality with Google

Comment:
Even though Yandex updates its algoritmes not so fast as Google does
(http://www.analyzethis.ru/), the search quality is quite good.
And Yandex tends to implement system updates (like Nakhodka or
Magadan) which will change search engine performance dramatically.
Yandex also works on usability improvement - latest example unusual
tips is search string - you can see the url of the web-site which is
ranked 1 on the query you requested (try "Panasonic").


4) Customers' loyalty
- difference in target auditory:
Google geeks, students and it specialists
Yandex office clerks, common people
- habits

Comments:
It's true that Yandex exists for longer period in Russia and if in the
world "to google" = search, here "yandex" = search It will take a lot
of Google efforts to win Yandex customers.

5) % discount to agencies in SEM
http://advertising.yandex.ru/discount.xml
It is one of major reasons for Yandex popularity - advertising
agencies can earn up to 25 % working with Yandex.
Usual agency fee for Google is 10-15 %.

Comments:
Very easy - for agencies it's not profitable to work with Google.
That's why turnover of Google in 2007 was $ 10 mln VS Yandex's $ 167 mln
http://roem.ru/2008/01/29/revenue


Below you can read comments from one of the Internet Guru in Russia
(Igor Ashmanov):
http://roem.ru/2008/11/06/aip061108/

"I have a simple theory (from Geoffrey Moore), that the audience is
divided into strata.
Yandex and Google works in different strata. Google - with technology
pioneers, Yandex with massive segment.
I think Google came to the limit of its segment. Can Google shift to
massive segment? - hard to say. Possible. This is a question of money
and marketing, not technology."

And latest comments:
Yandex postponed it's IPO for unnown period due to current crysis.
At the same time Yandex is trying to improve it's positions in CIS and
Eastern Europe - but it can be too late.
In these countries Yandex is in the same situation as Google in
Russia.
Auditory is already redistributed among local players and Google.
Most specialists agree that Google will increase it's share in Russia
in medium-term prospective (7-10 years).