"Yandex surely isn't the biggest kid on the block. In terms of the global search engine game, Statistia reports that Google has a 89% market share. The next closest competitor focused solely on search is Chinese-based Baidu .
While Google is a serious competitor to any search engine worldwide, it's worth noting that investors might want to keep their eyes on Baidu as well. Though the company is tailored more toward China and other Southeast Asian countries, China shares a 2,600-mile border with Russia as well.
My take: Yandex seems to be doing well in its core markets.One thing to understand about Yandex is that, right now, it has no intentions of being like Google, which has operations in most of the world's countries. It's far more instructive to see how Yandex is doing in its core Russian and former-bloc states. And when we look there, signs point toward the company gaining and maintaining favor.
The company only recently began competing actively in Turkey, so the low market share isn't too concerning. And Yandex also has a considerable presence in Kazakhstan, but I couldn't come upon accurate market share numbers.
My Foolish takeawayJust last week, I wrote an article about how Baidu was the best buy among major global search engines. Though I still believe that Baidu is a solid buy, there's no denying that Yandex continues to become a more and more enticing purchase.
As it stands today, the company trades hands at 27 times earnings, and 34 times free cash flow. While those seem expensive, the company is growing rapidly in markets where Internet penetration is just picking up, and economies are expected to grow at decent clips over the coming years.
Needless to say, I'll be holding my Yandex shares".
Source: The Motley Fool
