In today’s post we’ll bring back the subject of web directories. I’m afraid I must disappoint those of you who are counting on yet another text about Google. The giant of sunny California will have a voice but it’s not going to play the main part. We’ll take it to a small trip. Destination: Eastern Europe. Mission: encounter with another heavy-weight contestant called Yandex.
The prevailing opinion is that Google is the most popular internet directory on the planet. Is this statement entirely true to reality? Data confirm that this product has conquered many markets. One should remember, though, that this world is a big and varied one. In a quest to find a place where Google if faced with significant obstacles, we will soon arrive at the Eastern European markets, particularly Russia, where many western products, brands and solutions simply do not feel at home. Why? You could sneer (not entirely without grounds) about the hermetic and quite specific nature of these markets. However, in case of web browsers the problem is far more complex.
A directory is first and foremost an algorithm used for indexation of websites. Regardless of the mathematical sophistication, no mechanism of this type can be a universal solution. Global systems are then by rule insufficiently sensitive to the local specificity, the local social and cultural characteristics, likes and dislikes of users, linguistic intricacies or any other, impossibly important things that are decisive when it comes to the quality of searching. Russia, being a huge and peculiar market, is a greenhouse for local technologies. Here is where Yandex, one of the key online players in this part of Europe, comes to light.
Chart 1. Share of Visits begun by entering gemiusTraffic participating websites via Yandex search engine in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine; source: gemiusTraffic (January 2008 – May 2010)
Yandex was born thirteen years ago. The company runs the largest Russian internet portal (according to gemiusAudience results, it enjoyed a 80% reach among Russian internet users last February), and the country’s most popular web directory. After a splendid success in Russia , Yandex quickly entered the Ukrainian market, now briskly legalizing its operations in Belarus. Why the haste?
Chart 2.. Share of Visits begun by entering gemiusTraffic participating websites via Google search engine in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine; source: gemiusTraffic (January 2010)
It’s because Belarus has had some surprises for us over the last three years. It has become obvious to us that Yandex is the largest web directory in the eastern part of the Old Continent. Its domination in Russia is unquestionable, and its position on the Ukrainian market is continually strengthened. By the end of the first quarter of 2010 as many as 67% of all visits to websites monitored by gemiusTraffic in Russia begun from Yandex search results. On this market, the mighty Google has managed to win a meager 24% of share in the total number of visits. On the Ukrainian market, the distribution of powers is almost the opposite, but Google is systematically losing ground for the Moscow potentate. Only Belarus stepped out of line. The continuous growth in the reach of gemiusTraffic in this country allows us to claim with growing certainty that Belarusian internet users (despite a still strong interest in Yandex) sway towards the American directory. Why?
One of the possible reasons is the fact that until recently they had access only to the Russian and Ukrainian Yandex. The company has understood the problem. It launched the service in .com, is now opening its local branch in Minsk and launching a local version of the product on the Belarusian market. All this in the name of simple rules that stand behind its success in the motherland. The rules that it may have recently forgotten – being close to the users, understanding them and catering for their real needs. Search is not only a technological race, but also a big exam in business maturity.
