Yandex is Taking Back its Market Share from Google in Russia
Yandex presented a new version of its search engine. Now, it’s real artificial intelligence that not only opens the requested sites, but also suggests the desired solution. And since August, Russia has become the only country in the world where Android smartphone owners have the opportunity to choose which search engine to use, default Google or Yandex and Mail.Ru. Why in Russia is it better to search the Russian way? Olga Meshcheryakova reporting.
Last preparations, now, cameras will go down these rails, everything will start moving. Today is an important day for Yandex. Today, the search engine has reached a new level. The employees aren’t being modest, saying it’s a cosmic one. Three, two, one! Start! It’s based on the Korolev algorithm.
Company’s own development. With the help of a neural network, it compares the meaning of the query and the desired website. Artificial intelligence is tuned to be accurate when searching in Russian realities. Only in Russia, they turn off hot water in the summer. How would they know that? In Yandex, you can open the page and ask when hot water will be disconnected. For global players, these are no tricks, so they can't do this. With its new search engine, Yandex is entering a new online reality. It’s, of course, not so much about searching.
Yandex pushed back the almighty Google in the Russian market. It happened almost inconspicuously for users. So far inconspicuously. But if you reboot the smartphone, updating the version on the Android platform, a selection window will appear. You can set Google as the primary search engine. But you also can set another one. Few people thought about it, but this option wasn’t available for the Russian user before.
Google was the default on all operating systems. On computers, where there are more opportunities for a maneuver, the Yandex search engine is the leader. On smartphones, Google wins. In fact, users had no technical possibilities. A small percentage of people know how to change the default search engine. This means that users who love Yandex, in particular, for example, on their computer will get the same opportunity to use it on their mobile phone.
The Californian heavyweight is the absolute monopolist on the world market. It’s a historical IT reality that the Russian company is trying to change. Yandex against Google is a precedent, and, as it might seem, an unequal battle. But in the first round, a claim to the anti-monopoly service and an investigation, the American competitor, having paid a fine of 439 million rubles, agrees to make peace. For Yandex and other domestic systems, it’s the first victory. What were, first of all, our instructions and the provisions of the amicable agreement directed at? It’s necessary to open the preset channel for third-party applications, and in no way to put their applications in preferential terms in comparison with the applications of competitors.
The precedent is created. And this is only the beginning. There are claims against Google not only in the Russian market. The European Commission has also launched its investigation. The monopolist from Silicon Valley is asked to make room.
