Yandex opens Swiss office to support international growth

Yandex has this week announced it is opening a sales office in Lucerne, Switzerland, which will be headed up by Bernard Lukey, the former CEO of Russian online store OZON.ru and aims to better serve Yandex’s rapidly growing European client base.

The move signals the importance of international sales to Yandex’s growth, not only in its native Russia where it is the market leader with around 60% share but also across other European markets, including Belarus, Ukraine and Turkey, its first non-Slavic market.

Delegates at the International Search Summit, which is taking places as part of SMX Munich on 29th March, will be among the first to benefit from Bernard’s extensive experience of the Russian internet market, when he speaks at the event.

The session will give insights into search marketing in Russia, looking at how users in Europe’s largest internet market interact and behave online, and highlighting cultural trends which are key when developing SEO and PPC activity. Bernard will also offer advice on how to effectively use Yandex, and benefit from its wide range of services and tools – both in Russia and further afield.

The need for a European sales office indicates that international interest in Russia is increasing, and that more businesses are recognising the opportunities of entering this large, but still relatively immature online marketplace. And Yandex, while clearly still very focused on maintaining its position in Russia, is undoubtedly looking for opportunities elsewhere, where it can use its experience and knowledge to offer relevant and localised search experiences to non-Russian users.

Passes for the International Search Summit are still available and a full agenda is online. Other speakers will include John Müller from Google, Bastian Grimm of Grimm Digital and Andy Atkins-Krüger of Webcertain.

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Gemma Houghton

Director of Marketing at Webcertain

Gemma has worked in international search marketing for over 15 years and is Director of Marketing at Webcertain, overseeing all marketing activities for the Group. She also organises and programmes Webcertain’s International Search Summit and International Social Summit, Barcelona-based conferences focusing on international and multilingual digital marketing. Gemma holds a Professional Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Diploma in Management and Leadership from the Chartered Management Institute, and a BA joint honours degree in French and German.

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