Yandex, Google share edges up in 3 months
MOSCOW. July 2 (Interfax) - Internet companies Yandex and Google have both increased their share of the Russian search engine market in the last three months, Liveinternet.ru reports.
Yandex had a 60.5% share of the market in June, compared to 59.4% in March. The Russian search engine had 60.2% of the market in April and 60.5% in May.
Google climbed to 26.4% in June from 25.9% in March.
The third major player on the Russian search engine market - the Mail.ru Group - saw a drop. Poisk@Mail.ru had an 8.2% share in June and 9.3% in March.
Yandex held 60.6% of the Russian market at the end of 2011, Google - 25.5% and Mail.ru - 7.5%.
Yandex surpassed the 60% threshold in January 2010. During the year the company was able to increase its share by several per cent. There was a significant shift at the end of the second half of 2011 when Yandex saw its share drop from 63% to 61.4% in September.
The main reason for that was increased activity from Google on the Russian market: the U.S. internet giant stepped up its advertising campaign and excluded the right to select a search system from its Chrome browser.
Most analysts said Google increased its share of the Russian market thanks to its non-search services: social network Google+ and its Android platform for smartphones.
It was reported earlier that most analysts predict Yandex will maintain a stable market share of 60% to 65% in the next few years.
