Devina Joshi, London
Russian internet search engine Yandex is geared up to target Google in emerging markets including Turkey, in an effort to ward off expansion attempts made by the US search giant in its home turf.
The Yandex founder and chief executive Arkady Volozh has told Reuters that the firm is likely to use its own experts to expand into new countries, but will not rule out acquisitions or partnership deals.
"We are focusing on markets with Google dominance in search where it has 90-plus percent market share," says Volozh, adding Yandex will make consumers aware of the perils of one firm dominating the internet.
Yandex is currently eyeing Turkey, a market that it entered last year and holds a 1% market share in. The search engine is using the move into Turkey as a catalyst for expansion into other markets, include ones where it sees no real threat from Google.
Yandex raised $1.4bn in an IPO in New York last year. Its share of the Russian search market decreased to 60% in the second quarter from 64% a year earlier. This can be partially attributed to expansion by Google.
Despite the drive to expand abroad, Volozh insists that Yandex will defend its market share at home against rivals including Google and Microsoft, which use proprietary browser and operating systems to encourage users onto their search products. Last month, Yandex launched a browser to compete with Google's Chrome.
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