About three months ago, Google Russia lost its CTO to Mail.ru as she became the company’s deputy CTO. Now, it looks like a reunion of sorts may take place, as reports indicate that Google Russia and Mail.ru have reached a search deal.
Yandex, the dominant search engine in Russia, has been Mail.ru’s default search provider since January of 2006. However, that deal will soon expire, and apparently Google convinced Yandex that it provides a better search experience. (Or if you’re the cynical type, it just offered Yandex more money.)
Yakov Sadchikov recently wrote, “Russia’s leading online portal Mail.ru is going to replace its default web search engine and contextual advertising provider Yandex with Google from the beginning of 2010, according to Russian internet industry sources.”
Mail.ru’s share of the Russian search market is 10 percent, according to LiveInternet.ru, so this promises to be a significant arrangement for Google. Google’s share of the Russian search market is only 23.3 percent, by the way, and Yandex’s share is along the lines of 58.7 percent.
Sadchikov also provided one more hint about what’s at stake by writing, “In 2009, the Russian contextual advertising market shall reach $400 million.”
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