Google optimistic over Russian market
Google is confident it can increase its share of the Russian search market - one of the few regions globally where it lags behind the competition.
Russian-born co-founder Sergei Brin says that new technology will help Google close the gap on market-leading Yandex.
“Now we have incorporated far better morphology, which is very important in [the] Russian language,” said Brin of the technology that analyses word composition.
Currently the Russian search market is dominated by local provider Yandex, which according to the Global Search Report by leading Russian internet marketing agency e3internet serves almost half of searches carried out in the country; compared to Google’s 25 percent share.
In his first visit to Moscow in four and a half years, billionaire Brin told newspaper reporters that he thought Google now offered a superior search experience.
“We think our search is better but [Yandex] also has many talented people.” he commented.
As a developing market, areas such as Russia have become important targets for Google in the company’s mission to continue its strong growth. The internet population of Russia currently stands at 142 million.
In common with other “home-grown” search engines such as China’s Baidu, Yandex has not been standing still. In February the company announced plans to float on the Nasdaq in late 2008, with analysts estimating its value at around $3 billion.
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