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December 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
Yandex.Taxi continues foreign expansion with Israel
Yandex.Taxi online taxi ordering service of Russian internet major Yandex will launch its operations
in Israel under the “Yango” (short for Yandex go) brand, Vedomosti reported citing the press service of the company. Earlier this month the company announced it would expanded under the same brand in Finland and Cote d'Ivoir.
Yandex.Taxi is making first steps abroad after having cemented its leading position on the Rus- sian taxi market. After a promising joint venture with Uber, Yandex.Taxi has been consolidating its market share through acquisitions and expanding into the delivery market at home.
Yandex.Taxi was set up in in 2010 and has taken the market by storm, the company told bne In- telliNews in its first exclusive interview with the international press.
Yango will first be launched in the Gush Dan area in Israel (an urban conglomeration around Tel Aviv). Israel is the birthplace of Gett (originally Get Taxi) one of the emerging competitors of Yandex. Taxi in Russia. About 15% of Russian population are Russian speakers and are likely to be familiar with Yandex brand.
Earlier this year Yandex.Taxi launched in Serbia, as well as Baltic capitals Tallinn and Riga. Com- menting on entering the Finnish market, the com- pany's press service stressed that Russian and foreign apps will be fully compatible.
"Russian and other foreign users that arrive for a weekend in Helsinki will not have to install new applications on their smartphones," the press service said, as cited by Tass.