Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 24th July 2008
Google steps up Russian presence
Google has acquired “Begun”, the advertising engine of Rambler.ru, Russia’s second largest search engine, for $140 million (£70 million). The deal will strengthen Google’s position in Russia and significantly increase the number of Russian property buyers agents can reach through the Google Adwords platform. Begun is the largest advertising network in Russia, serving advertising on thousands websites, which includes the property section of
Rambler.ru.
Russian property portal entrepreneur, Ivailo Jordanov expects Begun’s websites to be added to Google’s content network “fairly quickly”. Advertisers will be able to target advertising on Russian sites by bidding on Russian keywords like “собственность Болгария” (“Bulgaria Property”) and turning on the content network option in campaign settings. Google is also likely to add some of the bigger sites like Rambler.ru to its placement network, which will allow advertisers to bid for traffic on specific websites.
However, Jordanov warns that agents and developers “still need Russian language skills to make it work”. As he says in our
recent interview, if you are serious about targeting Russia, you need a Russian language website and Russian in-house language skills.
According to
2007 figures from e3internet, Google takes only 25.1% share of the Russian search market, lagging behind Yandex.ru with 47.5%. Rambler.ru is third with 14.8%. The acquisition of “Begun” potentially opens the way for a bigger deal between Google and Rambler.ru which would present Yandex.ru with a serious challenge to its number one position. It’s a market with huge potential and like many overseas agents, Google wants a piece of the action. Expect further acquisitions by the global search giant.
Be the first to know about new marketing opportunities
If you don’t already receive our weekly newsletter, you can
subscribe free here. You’ll also get full access to our extensive archive of research and independent analysis of over 50 property portals.