Yesterday, on February 15, world’s second-largest internet search and web-infrastructure portal Yandex NV (YNDX) presented its quarterly results. Despite the fact that Yandex continues to show strong operating and financial results, trading in the shares is still suspended due to the Nasdaq listing situation. In addition, the company may experience some turbulence going forward due to the sale of some of the group's media assets and unclear business restructuring plans.

Nevertheless, the share of Yandex in the Russian Internet search market, including mobile search, averaged 62.6% in Q4 2022, up 2.4 pp from 60.2% in Q4 2021 and an improvement from 62.0% in Q3 2022, according to Yandex Radar. This trend continued despite Yandex search managed a deep transformation selling its news division to VK (VKontakte, Russian analogue of Facebook) and spinning off information portal rejoining it with its former blogging platform Dzen – all made, as experts say, to level down risks of becoming a subject of foreign sanctions.

Search share on Android in Russia was 62.0% in Q4 2022, up 2.8 pp from 59.2% in Q4 2021 and almost flat compared to 61.9% in Q3 2022, according to Yandex Radar.

Search share on iOS in Russia was 48.0% in Q4 2022, up 4.0 pp from 44.0% in Q4 2021 and relatively stable compared to 48.3% in Q3 2022, according to Yandex Radar.

Mobile search traffic was 67.7% of our total search traffic in Q4 2022. Mobile revenues represented 59.6% of YNDX’s search revenues in Q4 2022.

Total E-CommerceGMV skyrocketed by 90% YoY in Q4 2022. The number of active sellers on Yandex Market marketplace soared by 83% YoY and reached 43,700 as of the end of Q4 2022.

Below is the summary of Yandex performance over the reporting period:

All in all, revenues increased by 47% and Ex-TAC revenues grew by 45% YoY in Q4 2022 on the back of strong trends in the Yandex Advertising Network (led primarily by partner apps as well as websites) and solid growth in Search ad revenues. SMB remained the key contributor to the company’s revenue growth.

Adjusted EBITDA margin came to 51.7% in Q4 2022 compared with 50.6% in Q4 2021. Other Business Units and Initiatives segments helped to offset an adverse impact from the growth of personnel costs, and the resulting inclusion in adjusted EBITDA of stock-based compensation expenses.