MLU B.V. Yandex.Taxi

MLU B.V. is a combined company Yandex.Taxi and Uber. It was created in February 2018 as a result of the merger of Yandex.Taxi and Uber businesses in Russia and six neighboring countries.

Performance indicators

2023: Revenue growth by 30% to RUB 149.6 billion

Yandex Taxi's revenue at the end of 2023 amounted to 149.6 billion rubles, which is 30% more than the previous year. The company's net profit increased by 21.6% and reached 31.9 billion rubles. This was reported in the reporting under RAS, which Yandex Taxi disclosed in early April 2024.

According to TASS, citing the company's materials, at the end of 2023, Yandex Taxi paid a windfall tax of 1.7 billion rubles.

Yandex Taxi revenue in 2023 amounted to 149.6 billion rubles

Yandex reports say that the revenue of the Raidtech direction (this includes online taxi orders in Russia and the CIS countries, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Yandex.Drive car sharing service, as well as the scooter rental service) in 2023 reached 165.85 billion rubles, which is 36% more than a year earlier. Gross Order Value (GMV; the total amount paid by customers for taxi, car sharing and scooter rental services ordered on the Yandex platform, including VAT) in this direction exceeded 1.1 trillion rubles, an increase of 45% on an annualized basis. The segment's revenue indicator turned out to be lower than GMV growth due to bonuses to drivers and other measures to attract drivers and partners, Yandex noted.

Revenues of Yandex Taxi partners in 2023 amounted to 974 billion rubles, which is 47% higher year-on-year and faster than the growth of GMV service. The company noted that this is especially important given the significant increase in their expenses.

Summing up the results of 2023, Yandex also said that investments in the motivation of drivers and partners, including bonuses for drivers, were increased by 73%. The effective service commission remained below 10%. The share of travel in international markets by the end of 2023 was 35%, the company said.^[1]

2021: Yandex.Taxi got rid of losses

At the end of 2021, Yandex.Taxi LLC raised 107 billion rubles, which is almost twice as much as a year earlier. The company's net profit amounted to 3.6 billion rubles, while in 2020 there were net losses in the amount of 470 million rubles. Such indicators were announced in mid-April 2022.

According to the reports referred to by Interfax, the profit from Yandex.Taxi sales at the end of 2021 turned out to be equal to 29.4 billion rubles, an increase of 3.2 times compared to the profit a year ago. Except for Russia, Yandex. Taxi "is present in 19 more CIS countries, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company also takes into account Uber's performance in Russia and the CIS. The total income of drivers on the Yandex.Taxi platform at the end of 2021 increased by 76%, to 510 billion rubles. Adjusted EBITDA of the segment increased by 125%, to 22.3 billion rubles.

Yandex in 2021, using the Yandex.Taxi service, made 2.4 billion trips in Russia and abroad. At the same time, every fourth trip was made outside the Russian Federation (about 600 million). Previously, the service did not disclose this [data]. The total number of trips made with it.

{{quote 'In general, the acceleration of taxi growth is largely due to growth outside the main market: already a quarter of taxi trips are made by users in the CIS and Europe, the Middle East and Africa - this is much more than other services indicate in foreign markets, the report says. }} According to the press service of Yandex.Taxi in the fall of 2021, the average earnings of drivers working with this service are To Moscow Moscow area in and up to 135 thousand rubles. per month, a St. Petersburg little less - up to 130 thousand rubles. The number of trips made using the taxi service in 2021 increased by 48%.^[2]

2020

Revenue of taxi drivers and taxi companies reached 300 billion rubles

The revenue of taxi drivers and taxi companies on orders at Yandex.Taxi at the end of 2020 amounted to almost 300 billion rubles against 260 billion rubles a year earlier. Thus, the earnings of service partners for the year increased by 15%. Such data are provided by the press service of the company.

They noted that the revenue of drivers working with Yandex.Taxi was disclosed for the first time. The company stressed that the service continues to maintain an effective take rate below 10%. Yandex.Taxi returns a significant part of its commission to drivers in the form of rewards and intends to continue this practice.

We believe that in 2021 the growth in income of taxi drivers and taxi companies will increase. This, in particular, is influenced by the distribution of our technologies among partners - order distribution, demand forecasting, optimal routing, as well as new opportunities for order delivery in logistics, TASS the company said.

The revenue of the Yandex.Go taxi segment (combines Yandex.Taxi, Yandex.Food, Yandex.Lavka, Yandex.Drive and the logistics and courier business) at the end of 2020 increased by 47% and amounted to 66.96 billion rubles.

Despite the growth in revenue of drivers and taxi companies working with Yandex.Taxi, 2020 was not easy for the company. She had to abandon the Yandex.Taxi IPO due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) banned the Internet giant from buying a competitor, the Lucky taxi service. True, later the FAS admitted that the service had no legal grounds for interference, but at the same time noted the negative impact of the transaction on the taxi market.

During the pandemic, Yandex.Taxi also paid attention to financial support from partners. The service provided material assistance to those who contracted the coronavirus or were quarantined after contact with the sick. In 2020, more than 4,000 drivers received such compensation.^[3]

10% - effective service commission

At the end of April 2020, the Yandex.Taxi service first revealed the commission. They are lower than those of foreign competitors, in the face of falling demand for taxi services.

During a conference call on the publication of Yandex's reports for the first quarter of 2020, Yandex.Taxi CEO Daniil Shuleyko said that the share of service earnings from trips fell below 10%.

We are returning a significant portion of our commission to drivers in the form of rewards. In general, in 2019, the revenue of partners working with our platform (revenue of drivers and taxi companies-partners) amounted to 260 billion rubles, and in the first quarter about 75 billion rubles, - he said.

We are talking about the actual commission minus all remuneration to partners and drivers. In Uber and Lyft, according to unofficial data, commissions for drivers are 35% and 38% excluding payments, Business Insider reported. The commission was calculated on the basis of 14.7 thousand travel data.

According to Shuleyko, in the context of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Yandex.Taxi has seen a decrease in travel growth since the second half of March 2020. At the beginning of the month, the service processed almost 5 million trips a day, and by the end of March this figure "significantly decreased." An even greater impact will be noticeable in the second quarter, since the self-isolation regime was introduced on March 30, he added.

Daniil Shuleiko says that the total turnover of the taxi service (GMV) in Moscow since the beginning of April 2020 has decreased by 60% in annual terms and by 70% compared to the beginning of March.

Yandex's revenue indicator in the taxi segment, which includes taxi, food tech and drones, reached 11.4 billion rubles in the first quarter of 2020, which is 50% higher than a year ago.^[4]

Unmanned taxis

Main article: Yandex.Taxi Unmanned vehicle

History

2023

Contribution of $6.5 million to Kazakhstan state fund after antimonopoly investigation

The Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition of Kazakhstan (AZRK) reported on the results of the antimonopoly investigation against Yandex. Taxi. " According to the results of the two-year trial, the Russian company agreed to contribute 3 billion tenge (about $6.5 million) to the state fund for supporting the digital ecosystem.

AZRK completed an antitrust investigation against Yandex.Taxi. As a result, the company was brought to administrative responsibility for coordinating the economic activities of taxi companies, expressed in the imposition of technical support services for software for cash registers. Also, as part of the investigation, Yandex.Taxi was brought to administrative responsibility for failure to provide information to the antimonopoly authority, the agency said in a statement.

The regulator does not indicate what sanctions were imposed on the service, but adds that Yandex.Taxi contributed money to the state fund voluntarily. AZRK also agreed on several steps for antimonopoly compliance:

• Yandex.Taxi will introduce an additional bonus program for drivers, the economic effect of which the department estimates at 7-10 billion tenge ($15.4-22 million) annually;
• the service will reduce the commission for orders whose value, due to high demand, exceeds the base one by more than half;
• tariff increase factor in conditions of maximum demand (rain, snow, holidays) will be limited to 3;
• in the user application, the transparency of pricing will be increased, the forecast of tariff reductions will appear, and the algorithms themselves will be studied by an independent audit company;
• Yandex will introduce an updated tariff "Together" with the ability to order a taxi at a lower price even during periods of peak demand;
• a special fare will be launched for passengers with children with the ability to call a car with a child seat.^[5]

Yandex completed the consolidation of Yandex Taxi by paying Uber $702.5 million for a stake in the joint venture

The companies went to this deal for several years. The American giant has consistently sold its shares in Yandex.Eda, Yandex.Lavka, Yandex.Delivery and drones.

The American Uber 2022 was again a failure - the annual loss exceeded $9 billion. But the logic of this decision is not just about improving the financial situation. The global strategy of the company as a whole is to shake up all assets - in an investor presentation back in 2022, the company showed that it is leaving some projects that it no longer considers priority, and reinvests in other ideas. For example, the company has sold its drone division to Aurora Innovation Inc, cycling startup Jump, UberEats India and a number of other services in recent years.

At the same time, the departure of the American Uber will not affect the development of the taxi market in Russia. Operationally, the business has been concentrated in Russia for a long time.

2022

Request to Avtovaz, BAIC Group and Chery for the supply of cars amid a shortage

On September 1, 2022, Yandex asked Avtovaz, as well as Chinese car manufacturers BAIC Group and Chery, to supply vehicles for leasing companies with which Yandex.Taxi works. To update the fleet, Yandex needs 50,000 cars annually, and the taxi industry is faced with a shortage of cars and spare parts for them, Forbes.

Uber plans to get rid of its stake in a joint venture with Yandex as soon as possible

Uber plans to withdraw from the capital of a joint venture (JV) with Yandex as soon as possible in connection with the events in Ukraine. This became known on March 1, 2022. The American company owns a 29 percent stake in the joint venture, the cost of which is estimated at about $800 million.

At the end of December 2021, Yandex closed the deal to buy out Uber shares in Yandex.Eda, Yandex.Lavka, Yandex.Delivery, as well as in the Yandex Self-Driving Group division for $1 billion. After the redemption of shares, the joint venture remained in charge of taxi ordering, car sharing and scooter rental services. Yandex also received the right to buy out the remaining Uber share for a fixed amount for two years.

According to the source, Uber "is actively looking for opportunities to accelerate the sale of the remaining assets." Yandex previously stated that "the parties intend to continue to jointly develop these services within the framework of Yandex.tax."

In addition, as the publication was told in Uber, the company will recall three executives from the board of directors of the joint venture. After that, a new representative will be appointed, who will oversee the sale of the remaining share of Uber^[6]

2021

Yandex bought Uber shares in its services for $1 billion

On December 21, 2021, Yandex"" announced the closure of the transaction to buy Uber out shares in services Yandex.Food"," Yandex.Lavka"," Yandex.Delivery"" as well as in the division Yandex Self-Driving Group engaged in the development of technologies for. self-driving cars The total amount of these transactions amounted to $1 billion, of which $800 million had already been paid in September 2021, and the remaining $200 million was received by Uber after about three months.

After closing the transaction, Yandex received 100% Yandex Self-Driving Group, almost 71% MLU BV (manages the car rental business under the Yandex.Taxi and Yango brands, as well as under the Uber brand in the countries covered by the merger agreement), as well as 100% "Food," "Shops" and "Delivery."

Yandex and Uber will continue to jointly develop taxi ordering, car sharing and scooter rental services within the Yandex.Taxi group of companies.

Also, as part of the transaction, Yandex received the right to buy out the remaining share of Uber within two years at a price fixed in the range of $1.8-2 billion.

The fact that Yandex is interested in increasing its stake in Yandex.Taxi was previously said by the company's operating director Greg Abovsky.

This is a question of whether we can agree on a price that will suit everyone, - noted Abovsky and added that Yandex is in constant dialogue with Uber.

Yandex and Uber have been developing the combined company since 2018. In the second half of 2021, the restructuring of the joint venture, consisting of two stages, began. The first part of the transaction was completed in the third quarter, as a result of which Yandex increased its stake in MLU to 68.3%, buying 4.5% of the capital from its American partner. The company also fully consolidated the second joint venture with Uber - Yandex SDG's unmanned business - through the acquisition of 18.2% from a partner.

Alexander Anikin - the new general director of Yandex.Taxi

On November 24, 2021, it became known about the appointment of Alexander Anikin as the new general director of Yandex.Taxi. He replaced Grigory Dergachev, who headed the company since April 2021. Read more here.

IT training program for Yandex.Taxi employees

On September 21, 2021, it became known that Yandex decided to make programmers out of taxi drivers and will spend tens of millions of rubles on this. Moreover, in the future, the program of training in IT professions may be expanded. Read more here.

Yandex buys out shares in Food, Lavka, Delivery and drones for $1 billion

According CNews to the press service Yandex of "," the company will fully buy out from the joint venture (JV) with the company - Uber the Yandex.Taxi group of companies, shares in "," Yandex.EdeYandex.Lavke"Yandex.Delivery," as well as business self-driving cars in rovers. The total amount of the transaction, according to data to Yandex, is estimated at $1 billion. This became known on August 31, 2021.

After the redemption of shares, only taxi ordering, car sharing and scooter rental services will remain under the jurisdiction of Yandex and Uber JV. The parties intend to continue to jointly develop these services within the framework of the Yandex.Taxi Group of Companies, the company noted.

The deal also implies a buyout by Yandex from Uber of a 4.5% stake in the joint venture. As a result, Yandex's share in the joint venture will grow to 71%, including shares reserved for the options program. Additionally, Yandex also received the right to buy out the remaining Uber share for a fixed amount in the range of $1.8-2 billion over two years.

The deal has already been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and will be closed by the end of 2021, the Yandex press service said.

As explained in Yandex, as a result of the transaction, the company intends to accelerate "the pace of business development in the rapidly growing e-commerce and food tech market." It is assumed that acceleration will be achieved by closer integration of own services, as well as simplification of their management processes.

So, according to the company, as of August 2021, Yandex.Lavka interacts with Yandex.Market, providing customers with a more convenient moment to receive orders. Automotive Yandex.Delivery, in turn, provides restaurants, cafes and other businesses with additional income due to a wider delivery radius.

Yandex is also betting on its unmanned fleet for the future. cars As of August 2021, it includes 170 cars that have already overcome more than 14 million km in autonomous mode on the roads, and Russia. USA Israel

According to the company, Yandex courier robots have already made more than 26 thousand deliveries in Russia and the United States since their launch in 2019. The direction of unmanned vehicles is considered strategic in Yandex, which contains "great growth potential in the long term, including on an international scale,"^[7].

Yandex.Taxi enters the Norwegian market

At the end of April 2021, it became known that Yandex.Taxi will soon work in Norway. To do this, the company recruits employees. Read more here.

Grigory Dergachev - General Director of Yandex.Taxi LLC

In mid-April 2021, it became known about the appointment of Grigory Dergachev as the new general director of Yandex.Taxi LLC. Prior to that, he held the position of product director at the company and worked in it for more than eight years. Read more here.

Purchase of assets of the company "Lucky" for $178 million

On February 2, 2021, Yandex announced the purchase of assets of Lucky for $178 million. We are talking about call centers and a business commissioned by cargo transportation, which is being transferred to the ownership of Yandex.Taxi. Read more here.

2020

Yandex.Taxi leaves Romania

On October 14, 2020, Yandex.Taxi announced its withdrawal from the Romanian market. The company explained its decision by the "peculiarities of local legislative regulation" of passenger traffic. Read more here.

Yandex has allocated the development of unmanned vehicles to Yandex SDG

On September 4, 2020, Yandex announced the separation of the direction of unmanned vehicles into a separate company, which was called Yandex Self-Driving Group (Yandex SDG). Previously, it belonged to the Yandex.Taxi group of companies. Read more here. 

Yandex is in talks to buy out Uber's stake in Yandex.Taxi

Yandex is in talks to buy out Uber Technologies' stake in Yandex.Taxi, Yandex's operating and financial director Abovsky^[8] said in June that^[9]

At the beginning of the month, the media reported that Yandex is considering buying out Uber's stake instead of conducting an initial public offering (IPO) of this unit. It was indicated that Yandex wants to buy out the entire Uber stake. Uber previously valued its stake in the joint venture at $1.24 billion .

"We are in constant communication on Uber within the framework of our Yandex.Taxi business, and we, of course, are in active dialogue. To date, there is nothing irreversible, or in the process, but I think we are very interested in increasing this share and gaining full control over this asset. I think it's a question of whether we can agree on a price, "he said in a conference call.

2019

As of July 2019, MLU B.V. operates an online ride ordering service that operates under the Yandex.Taxi, Uber and Yango brands. The company is actively developing new markets and, in addition to Russia, provides online taxi ordering service in 17 countries of Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. She also owns a service for delivering food from cafes and restaurants Yandex.Eda and a service for delivering kits for cooking Yandex.Shef.

Creation of a separate company for the development of unmanned vehicles - Yandex.SDK

At the end of October 2019, it became known about the creation of a separate subsidiary by Yandex.Taxi, which will focus on the development of unmanned vehicles. Read more here.

Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and UBS estimated the cost of Yandex.Taxi before the IPO

On September 18, 2019, estimates of the value of Yandex.Taxi from large investment banks became known. The service plans to go public in 2019-2020.

As Forbes writes with reference to the Goldman Sachs report, the bank estimates Yandex.Taxi at 7.3 billion (475 billion rubles) or $7.7 billion, taking into account the balance of funds on the balance sheet of about $400 million. Svetlana Sukhanova, senior analyst for telecommunications sector and media/IT at Sberbank CIB, calls a similar figure - $7.77 billion.

The upper bar in terms of value is indicated by analysts Bank of America ($8.5 billion) and (UBS $8.4 billion). For comparison, the capitalization of taxi ordering services Uber Lyft is $60.8 billion and $17.4 billion.

Before merging with Uber, Yandex.Taxi was estimated at $3.8 billion. The company has an agreement to buy part of the assets of Lucky.

According to the analyst of Finam the GC "," Leonid Delitsyn the fair estimate of Yandex.Taxi is $3.8- $4.2 billion. The Russian company is a rarity on global exchanges, and Yandex.Taxi is most likely going to, IPO he notes.

The assessment of Goldman Sachs can be considered an optimistic estimate of the cost of Yandex.Taxi under a favorable set of circumstances in ten years, the expert continues. It will be very difficult to enter an IPO in 2020 with such an assessment, the expert believes: it is more realistic to place at a company valuation of $3-3.5 billion.

Earlier, Yandex.Taxi was planned to be IPO in 2019 or 2020. In the second quarter of 2019, the company for the first time showed a profit of 423 million rubles. Prior to that, due to the expansion of the business, the indicators were negative.

At the beginning of 2019, Yandex.Taxi was only in the process of negotiating with investment banks about the listing, Forbes magazine wrote then, citing informed sources.^[10]

Yandex.Taxi started working in Ghana

The online taxi ordering service under the Yango brand is already moving with might and main in Africa. In the fall of 2018, it launched in Abidjan, and in the summer of 2019 it was launched in Ghana.

With the help of Yango, you can order taxis from licensed Yandex partner companies. It is compatible with the Yandex.Taxi application, so Russians will be able to use the well-known application.

Yandex plans to continue to cooperate with Africa. Services in the field of telemedicine, online education and others may become available to residents of the continent.

Purchase of software and call centers of the Lucky group of companies

On July 15, 2019, Yandex.Taxi announced the conclusion of an agreement on the purchase of software and the call center group of companies "Lucky." Within three years, Yandex.Taxi will invest about 8 billion rubles in the development of taxis in the regions of Russia, of which about 4 billion will go to the introduction of technologies that ensure the safety of travel, and the same amount to support programs to support local taxi companies and drivers.

For users of "Lucky," everything will remain familiar: they will still be able to call the machine both through the Rutaxi and "Lucky" applications and by phone. "Lucky" and Yandex.Taxi will continue to expand existing driver training centers and open additional ones. After closing the deal, drivers and taxi companies will switch to a single Yandex.Taxi technology platform. Among the features of the platform are advanced security technologies and an effective order distribution mechanism. Thanks to it, drivers drive less "idle" and earn more, and users spend less time waiting for a car.

Current shareholders of Lucky will receive up to 3.6% of Yandex.Taxi shares and up to $71.5 million, subject to the successful achievement of key goals for operational and other indicators. After the completion of the transaction, 56.2% of Yandex.Taxi will be owned by Yandex, 35.0% by Uber, and 5.3% by employees under the incentive program.

The parties expect the deal to close before the end of 2019. It was approved by the supervisory board of Yandex.Taxi and the boards of directors of Yandex N.V. and Lucky. The deal also requires the consent of Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service.

Appointment of Evgeny Senderov as CFO

On April 23, 2019, Yandex.Taxi announced the appointment of Evgeny Senderov, CFO, who has more than 20 years of experience in the financial sector. Read more here.

Testing a joint tracking system with Citymobil and Lucky

On April 5, 2019, it became known that Lucky, Citymobil and Yandex.Taxi are testing a joint system for end-to-end tracking of the driver's working time. If the driver accepts orders from different services, data exchange will help to establish how many hours in total he spent driving. Project participants invite other aggregators to join the system.

Yandex.taxi and Citymobil have already begun to exchange relevant data in Moscow, the Moscow region and Yaroslavl. "Lucky" as of April 5, 2019 is in the process of introducing the technology.

The main task of the system is to control the time during which the driver works in order to avoid road accidents caused by his fatigue. It is about end-to-end time accounting on the line. As you know, many drivers take orders from several services in order to increase their income, and as a result spend much more time driving than each individual company can track. To have an idea of ​ ​ all the driver's work time, services will have to exchange data.

The companies have created a technical protocol that will allow you to track operating times throughout the country in real time. Testing is carried out through closed channels. The project participants note that it is quite difficult from a technological point of view to establish an exchange of data on such a large number of drivers in real time. This requires spending several months on development, creating a special data exchange format cloudy and infrastructure for them. storages

Immediately after the end of testing and final setup, services will begin to restrict access to orders for drivers who have spent too much time driving in total, no matter which of the three services and at what time of the day they take orders. This system will affect all drivers - employees of partner taxi companies, individual entrepreneurs and self-employed^[11].

2018

Revenue - 26.74 billion rubles; losses - 1.69 billion rubles

In 2018, Yandex.Taxi's revenue amounted to 26.74 billion rubles, having almost tripled compared to 2017. The company remained unprofitable, but its net losses more than tripled - to 1.69 billion rubles.

Financial data leads RBC with reference to the SPARK-Interfax database. It follows from it that other large taxi ordering services in Russia also suffer large losses.

Thus, the net loss of Gettaxi Rus LLC (operating under the Gett brand ) in 2018 turned out to be equal to 2.27 billion rubles, having decreased by 8% compared to the previous year. Losses of City-Mobile LLC (Citymobil brand ) increased more than 100 times and reached 3.63 billion rubles.

As for revenue, Gett in Russia amounted to 4.75 billion rubles, an increase of almost a third compared to income a year ago. Citymobil's revenue jumped 3.4 times - to 1.07 billion rubles.

Uber showed the opposite dynamics in the Russian market. In 2018, the revenue of Uber Technologies LLC amounted to 571 million rubles, having decreased by more than three times compared to 2017. The company remained profitable (14.65 million rubles), but profit decreased 5.5 times. At the same time, the global Uber Technologies Inc. is unprofitable - in 2018, the company's net loss reached $1.8 billion, and revenue increased by 435 to $11.3 billion, RBC notes.

Of all the listed Russian companies, only Yandex.Taxi LLC partially disclosed the financial indicators. Its parent company Yandex reported that revenue from the taxi segment in 2018 increased by 293%, to 19.2 billion rubles.

The discrepancy between the indicators published in SPARK and previously announced by the company is partly due to different reporting standards (Yandex discloses US GAAP data). In addition, Yandex.Taxi has merged with Uber's business in Russia and several CIS countries.^[12]

Purchase of Opteum

On August 6, 2018, Yandex.Taxi announced the purchase of Opteum, an online services developer for managing taxi companies with an office in Naberezhnye Chelny. Yandex.Taxi plans to open its own office in this city on its basis when the acquisition is completed. Read more here.

2017

FAS approval of Yandex.Taxi-Uber deal

Federal Antimonopoly Service approved the agreement Yandex"" Uber and on combining online travel ordering businesses in. The Russia deal was also approved Belarus Kazakhstan by the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade of the Republic and is awaiting approval by the antimonopoly department, Yandex reported on November 24, 2017.

After the deal closes, both ride-ordering apps - both Yandex.Taxi and Uber - will still be available to users. At the same time, taxi companies and drivers will switch to a single technological platform - this will increase the number of cars available for fulfillment of orders, reduce the time of their submission, reduce idle mileage, increase the reliability and availability of the service as a whole.

The signing of the agreement was announced on July 13, 2017. Under its terms, Yandex and Uber will combine online travel ordering businesses in Russia,,, Azerbaijan Armenia Belarus, Georgia Kazakhstan and as part of the newly created company, which will also include a food delivery service. UberEATS

Uber and Yandex are investing $225 million and $100 million in the company, respectively, estimating it at $3.725 billion. Taking into account these investments and possible adjustments at the time of closing the transaction, 59.3% of the company will be owned by Yandex, 36.6% by Uber, 4.1% by employees.

To ensure the smooth operation of services for users and drivers, the parties will close the deal after the New Year and Christmas holidays in January 2018.

Yandex and Uber merger

On July 13, 2017, Yandex and Uber announced that they had agreed to combine their online travel ordering businesses in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Under the terms of the agreement, $225 million and $100 million are invested in the created company Uber and Yandex, respectively, estimating it at $3.725 billion. As a result, 59.3% of the company will be owned by Yandex, 36.6% by Uber, and 4.1% by employees. The company will be headed by the general director of Yandex.Taxi Tigran Khudaverdyan. You can read more about this here.

Work in 108 major cities

As of the beginning of June 2017, the Yandex.Taxi online taxi ordering service, owned by the company of the same name (LLC), operates in 108 large cities of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan. In total, more than 195 thousand active drivers are connected to it.^[13]

The Yandex.Taxi service allows you to quickly call an official taxi without calling the dispatcher and monitor the execution of the order on the map. You can order a taxi on the website or through a mobile application for smartphones. The average delivery time of the car is 4-5 minutes.

System for monitoring tired drivers

On March 17, 2017, it became known about Yandex's plans to develop and implement an IT system to control tired drivers connected to the Yandex.Taxi service.

We have really been studying various technological solutions available in Russia and abroad for several months. If signs of fatigue are found at the wheel, such a system will warn that a break needs to be taken and may limit the acceptance of orders from passengers, Yandex told the Kommersant newspaper.

Yandex.Taxi CEO Tigran Khudaverdyan called the publication an approximate investment in the project - about $20 million.

One of the sources told Kommersant that to implement the idea of ​ ​ monitoring the state of drivers in real time, you can connect the sleep control system and the Taxometer software complex, which is used to control the quality of transportation. Yandex has its own computer vision technologies that can be "trained" for this, the source said.

Yandex can involve in cooperation the Neurocom company, whose driver's wakefulness control system is equipped with all passenger and about 80% of Russian Railways freight and shunting locomotives.

We are really conducting a dialogue with Yandex about the possibility of using our systems to maintain the driver's performance , "Ilya Ivanov, deputy head of the Neurocom development department, confirmed to the publication.

According to him, the decision of the "Neurocom" is a special bracelet worn by the driver, perceives electric resistance and "learns" about when the driver's attention switches from one object to another. The loss of concentration is followed first by a light and then a sound alert. The system can be connected to the control room on board.

2016: Start of development of self-driving taxi

Main article: Yandex.Taxi Unmanned vehicle

It is expected that the project will be implemented on the basis of the Yandex.Taxi service. As the head of PR projects of the service Elina Staviskaya told the m24.ru network publication in September 2016, the company is now negotiating with several representatives of the automotive industry. The subject of discussion is the start of testing the semi-autonomous control system of the car^[14].

In addition, Staviskaya noted that Yandex.Taxi sees great potential in integrating the service of intelligent distribution of orders and unmanned vehicles.

2015: Formation of Yandex.Taxi

In December 2015, as part of the reorganization of Yandex, the Yandex.Taxi service became a separate company Yandex.Taxi LLC, Tigran Khudaverdyan was appointed its director.

2012: Availability of the web version of Yandex.Taxi

The web version of the Yandex.Taxi service appeared on June 28, 2012.^[15]

2011: Yandex.Taxi service launch in Moscow

On October 26, 2011, Yandex.Taxi launched in Moscow as one of Yandex's services. At the start, about 1000 drivers from 11 taxi companies of the capital were connected to the system.^[16]

Initially, the service was presented only by a mobile application on iOS and Android platforms.

Notes