Yandex is balancing global ambition with local focus through AI innovation and deep cultural understanding.
Dimitry Masyuk, Director of Search and Advertising Business Group at Yandex
In the global world of tech, Yandex stands as a unique player. Despite fierce competition, Yandex does strong business in markets like their native Russia, and increasingly the Middle East, with a significant share in search and other tech-driven services. Here, Dimitry Masyuk, Director of Search and Advertising Business Group at Yandex, shares insights on how the company continues to thrive by focusing on localization, artificial intelligence (AI), and an understanding of local markets.
Competing with giants
The fact that Yandex continues to outpace competitors like Google in Russia is remarkable. “We seem to be the only company in the world who has been able to compete in absolutely open and fair competition with Google on our local market,” says Masyuk. Yandex’s dominance, with a 65 percent market share compared to Google’s 35 percent, is a testament to the company’s understanding of local needs, he says.
The power of localization
Yandex’s focus on localization plays a key role in its competitiveness. For example, the company developed its voice assistant to work in the Kazakh language, reflecting the cultural shift in Kazakhstan, where many children now choose Kazakh over Russian in schools. “We launch a lot of projects really emphasizing our genuine intention and sincere attention to local culture,” Masyuk explains.
This attention to local details sets Yandex apart from global competitors. While this approach may not always be the most profitable, Yandex views it as a long-term investment. Masyuk states, “We are trying to relate with the local specifics. It is not easy, but it is so much fun, and we learn so much from that.”
First-class talent
Masyuk also attributes much of Yandex’s success to its engineering talent. Speaking of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), a sort of Olympiad for software engineers, “14 out of 20 last years, [it] was won by Russian teams,” he notes. This deep local technical expertise enables Yandex to create not only a leading search engine but also ride-hailing, food tech, and video streaming services.
Embracing AI and open-source technologies
Artificial intelligence is central to Yandex’s future. The company is leading the way in making AI more accessible and cost-effective. Yandex’s open-sourced YaFSDP framework reduces the cost of pre-training AI models by 26 percent. “We’re trying to make AI localization, whether we’re talking about geographical localization or localizing the solution for particular business needs, more available and cheaper for everyone,” says Masyuk.
Looking forward
Yandex has no immediate plans to become a super app like China’s WeChat, but its focus on AI and localization suggests continued innovation. “We are trying to be global and competitive on the tech side of the field, and we’re trying to be as local as possible on the product side,” Masyuk explains.
In a rapidly changing tech industry, Yandex’s combination of global ambition and local focus could be the key to its sustained success.
