Begun, Rambler, and Yandex Evaluate Context Advertising Market

Internet, February 12, 2007. Begun, Rambler, and Yandex assessed the volume of the context advertising market in the Russian Internet. According to analytical departments of the three companies, in 2006 context ad market turnover amounted to $110 million. This represents an increase of almost 2.5 times compared to 2005, when the turnover was $45 million.

According to the Russian Association of Communication Agencies (RACA), the total volume of media advertising reached $100 million in 2006, growing 1.6 times versus 2005. For the first time in history of the Internet in Russia, the context ad segment outperformed media advertising by both growth rate and volume in absolute terms, and the total size of the market exceeded $200 million.

"The primary factor driving the growth of this market is the efficiency of context advertising for the vast majority of businesses. Due to this fact, market volumes in the near future should at least double annually as a sustained trend,” comments Alexey Basov, Executive Director of Begun.

"There is no decrease in media advertising volumes, as far as we can see," comments Denis Kalinin, CEO of Rambler Internet Holding. "We could say that the growth rates are decelerating, which is quite natural for a rapidly expanding market."

"Internet has been recognized as a strategic advertising instrument," states Alexey Tretyakov, Yandex CCO. “Companies now spend more on promoting themselves on the web, and the turnover is growing faster than the count of advertisers. Small and medium businesses have understood the efficiency of the Internet as a communication medium, contributing to the spectacular growth of the context ad segment.”

In 2006, online advertising took 3% of the Russian advertising market, compared to 2% in 2005.

Begun

Dmitry Chistov, Director for External Relations

Phone: (495) 956-5007

E-mail: pr@begun.ru

Rambler Media

Natalia Shakhgedanova, PR Director

Phone.: (495) 745-3619

E-mail: press@rambler-co.ru

Contact:
Media Relations
Vladimir Isaev, Ochir Mandzhikov
Phone: +7 495 739-7000
E-mail: pr@yandex-team.com