Yandex Launches in Turkey

Istanbul, September 20, 2011. Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX) today announced that it has launched a web portal in Turkey. Yandex’s search engine and a range of other services created specifically for web users in this country are now available at yandex.com.tr. The company has also opened an office in Istanbul.

The search engine at yandex.com.tr takes into account the structure of the Turkish language, features an auto-correction function and can differentiate between synonyms. Just like the company’s Russian search engine, the search system in Turkey retrieves much more than web links, including news, pictures and videos. Yandex search users can enter just a line of poetry in Turkish to find a poem, or see what a particular color looks like after typing its name in the search bar. In addition to the search function, yandex.com.tr also offers Mail, News, Translation and other services.

“It’s the first time we start offering web search services in a country where almost nobody speaks any Russian,” says Arkady Volozh, Yandex CEO. “We have considered countries with a well-developed internet market, a growing web user audience and a lot of local language content. Turkey was a clear first choice. Instead of just localizing our services for this country, we custom-built an entirely new product – tailored specifically to web users in Turkey. Rolling out this new product involved developing a number of new technologies, such as a technology for storing web documents in different languages and a document prioritization technology. We expect to make broader use of these technologies in the future.”

“Technology alone is not enough to make a good search engine,” says Alisher Hasanov, Product Director at Yandex.Turkey. “We also need an understanding of the local culture, language and users’ preferences. Our launch in Turkey would not have been possible without our Turkish team. Currently, there are a couple dozen people working in our Istanbul office, including analysts, managers and translators. The majority of our team in Turkey are directly involved with search. Our local Turkish team defines our core direction in this country.”

Yandex intends to continue investing time and resources in its portal in Turkey, both in terms of search quality and expanding the range of services available in the future on yandex.com.tr.

ABOUT YANDEX

Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX) is the leading internet company in Russia, operating the country’s most popular search engine and the most visited website. According to LiveInternet, in August 2011 Yandex generated 63% of all search traffic in Russia. Yandex also operates in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Yandex’s mission is to answer any question internet users may have.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These include statements regarding the implementation of our launch in Turkey and our further expansion plans. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted or implied by such statements, and our reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted or implied by such statements include, among others, our ability to successfully meet the challenges of establishing a market position in a new geography, competitive pressures, changes in advertising patterns, changes in the legal and regulatory environment, technological developments, unforeseen changes in our hiring patterns, and our need to expend capital to accommodate the growth of the business, as well as those risks and uncertainties included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Prospectus dated May 24, 2011, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is available on our investor relations website at http://company.yandex.com/investor_relations/sec_filing.xml and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. All information provided in this release is as of September 20, 2011, and Yandex undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.

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

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