Microsoft and Yandex Announce Cooperation to Deliver Windows 10 with Yandex Search

Moscow, October 13, 2015 – Microsoft and Yandex, Russia’s largest internet company, have announced a strategic cooperation agreement, to make it easy for people in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Turkey, and several other countries in the region to upgrade to a custom experience with Windows 10, where Yandex will be offered as the default homepage and search for the Microsoft Edge browser as well as IE across Windows 10 devices.

According to agreement between the two companies, Microsoft will deliver custom experience with local browsing and search capabilities through the Yandex search engine across Windows 10 devices distributed in the region. Windows 10 is free to people running genuine copies of Windows 7 and Windows 8 that upgrade in the first year.

In addition, the agreement between Microsoft and Yandex will introduce people in these regions to the advantages of Windows 10 through the Yandex index page, which will offer them a place to download and install the official Windows 10 experience. The Yandex feature page will also showcase the capabilities of Windows 10, and offer people a seamless way to obtain it.

“We are committed to delivering a Windows 10 experience that our customers around the world will love – one of the ways we will do this is through locally relevant experiences,” says Terry Myerson, executive vice president, Windows and Devices, Microsoft Corp. “Microsoft and Yandex have a long-standing, successful partnership with Yandex search currently integrated in Windows Phone locally, and we look forward to introducing Yandex search to our customers across the Windows 10 ecosystem in these markets.”

“Windows 10 has already proven to be a success, while demonstrating enormous growth potential, not least because of Microsoft’s willingness to cooperate with strong players in local markets,” said Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex. “The new agreement is a logical step in the development of our well-established partnership with Microsoft affirming the high quality of our products.”

In addition, Yandex will deliver Universal Windows Applications for search, navigator, music, taxi, market and maps.

Microsoft released Windows 10 worldwide on July 29th.

About Yandex

Yandex (NASDAQ:YNDX) is one of the largest internet companies in Europe, providing the world with search and online services, one market at a time. Yandex’s mission is to help users solve their everyday problems by building people-centric products and services. Based on innovative technologies, the company provides the most relevant, locally tailored experience on all digital platforms and devices. Yandex is Russia's leading search service with more than 57% of the county's search market and also serves Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. More information about Yandex can be found at http://company.yandex.com.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Contact:
Media Relations
Vladimir Isaev, Ochir Mandzhikov
Phone: +7 495 739-7000
E-mail: pr@yandex-team.com