Yandex Turns 20

On September 23, 1997, the Yandex search engine was unveiled at the SofTool Exhibition.

Soon after launching Yandex, Ilya Segalovich and Arkady Volozh saw an opportunity to provide users with more than a search engine. “The user’s journey doesn’t end with search. We understood that very early on,” said Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh. In first five years, Yandex added a number of services, including email, news and image search, eCommerce, and online payments. Also Yandex.Direct, the Russian Internet’s first contextual ad placement service for businesses who wanted to advertise on Yandex, was launched.