Russian search engine company Yandex, as we know, is one of
the very few examples of success against Google domination across the world.
What most of us probably don’t know is, Yandex is also pushing in other
frontiers to put pressure on other global tech companies as well. Yandex has
not only beaten Google in Russia, but has now entered the $1billion Russian
taxi market to outpace and dominate Uber. According to an August article,
Yandex taxi fleet is now more than 15,000 vehicles in Moscow, more than the
combined fleet size of Uber and Gett. By the end of this year, Yandex plans to
expand its coverage to 25 cities across Russia, while Uber is still
conservative in the market, available only in 3 cities. Taxi market seems to
have become a core element of Yandex strategy now, as the company also invested
in another taxi software BiTaksi in Turkey, where Yandex search engine has also
reached a considerable market share.
Yandex value proposition is quite obvious for Russian
customers, as the typical wait time for taxis is 30 minutes in Moscow. Yandex
has developed a software to integrate various taxi fleets in the city to reduce
the wait times to 5-7 minutes. While Uber and Gett is mostly present around the
city center, Yandex’s coverage is much wider, making it the top choice for many
Russians. Yandex also uses an interesting marketing strategy to acquire
customers in Russia, where Uber offers free ice-cream and movie tickets to its
customers. Yandex, on the other hand, added two Tesla cars, which happen to be
the only Tesla cars in Russia, to its fleet. Random rides with Tesla cars seem
to have amused Russians, not to mention the hype they create as Yandex Tesla cabs
drive around the city.
Yandex, just like Google, is trying to diversify from search
engine revenues, which still accounts for more than 90% of their portfolio. It
will be interesting to see how Yandex, and other search engine companies, will continue
to diversify through expanding into and disrupting other businesses.
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