Andy Atkins-Kruger presented on Yandex which is the number 1 in Russia. They acheived this by solving the problem with dealing with the Russian language and being first to market.
Russian Internet Audience:
142M people, 2% of the Earth’s population. 83 federal states, 11 cities with more than a 180 different ethnic groups. Internet usage is growing, 43 million people accessing the web daily. Internet penetration differs by age group. In Moscow With 97% in age groups 18-24 whereas over 55 it drops to 20%. In other areas these figures drop substantially.
Runet is not only Russia, it covers Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
Russian browser usage is different to global with 33% IE, 27% FF, and 32% Opera. Social Networks also differ massively where Facebook is only number 4 and Twitter #6. Top of the list is VKONTAKTE.RU with 72% reach. VKONTAKTE.RU and Yandex have a very close relationship.
Most top Russian sites are Russian owned.
Whats new?
Russia is going mobile, mobile adoption rates are growing especially outside cities. Growth rate in Yandex mobile search audience is exponential and PPC has a 40% CTR in this market.
Biggest Search Engines in Russia
1) Yandex – 65%
2) Google – 21%
3) Mail.ru (which is soon to be listed in the London Stock Exchange) – 8%
Why Yandex?
1) Russia has a stong background in maths and linguistics
2) Yandex is local
3) Yandex built a world class R&D team
Russian internet advertising market
• Share of online went from 6.6% to 8.9% therefore online wasn’t hit by the global recession
• Overall internet is growing at 33%
• Google Adwords takes 25% of the marketplace, 75% is earned by Yandex.
• 60% of all paid clicks go to st Petersburg and Moscow
• This is changing as regional share is increasing.
• Online shopping increased by 40% from 2008 – 2009. They are effectively a currency as they have a financial product.
