Russia's Yandex Says 2006 Revenue Doubles To $72 Million

MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- Russian Internet portal Yandex Wednesday said its revenue doubled in 2006 to $72 million as advertisers flocked to target its growing audience.

"We are pleased with the trends we are seeing, with experts estimating that current growth rates of online advertising may result in it overtaking radio advertising in Russia in just a couple of years," Yandex chief executive and co- founder, Arkady Volozh, said in a statement.

The privately owned company, which operates Russia's most popular search engine, said search-context ads represented more than 80% of its overall revenue, while banner ads generated the remainder.

"Our internal research indicates that 2006 was the first year that search- context advertising accounted for more than half of Russia's total online advertising," Volozh said.

Yandex said its audience reached around 5 million users a day in December.

Company Web site: http://www.yandex.ru