Moscow tech giant Yandex balances between state control and independence. A blueprint for mega-tech corporations in a democracy?

From the end of March to mid-June, when Moscow was in corona lockdown, the Russian capital was almost empty of normal passers-by. Whenever I went to the supermarket or the pharmacy, whole columns of cyclists in the yellow uniform of the Yandex grocery delivery service passed me. Among the few vehicles on the road – besides police cars or buses – were Yandex taxis, which were disinfected at newly opened stops.

In the West, Yandex is often referred to as Russia’s Google. In reality, it’s more of a combination of Google, Amazon, Uber, and maybe a few other companies. The Russians ask Alice, the company’s virtual assistant, to help them order goods online in the Yandex market. They use the company’s e-mail system, listen to music on its player and visit its website for movie recommendations. Over coffee, they read the morning news on the Yandex news portal. They send money to each other through the Yandex wallet system. And your Google Maps is the Yandex Navigator. Yandex alone is an entire Russian Silicon Valley, says Arkadi Wolosch, CEO and co-founder of the company traded on the Nasdaq electronic stock exchange in New York.

But Yandex’s success has its price. The Kremlin views the Internet as a battleground in its clashes with the West and is increasingly concerned that a company like Yandex, with millions of collected data on Russian citizens, could someday fall into the strange hands. Managing a tech giant in Russia is therefore a delicate balancing act: on one side there is the Kremlin, on the other the New York Stock Exchange with the demands of investors for company independence.

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