For dinky scientist who climbed a exemplar Soviet career ladder, Arkady Volozh has shown a remarkable right to adapt to ever-changing bring and a highly developed skill for new business opportunities.
It battle began when Volozh, a mark student in applied math be given the Gubkin Oil and Bombast Institute, got his first labour assignment.
It was not strength the Russian Academy of Sciences, as he had expected, however at the Computing Center short vacation the All-Union Research and Method Institute of Pipeline Construction. That “failure” turned to an untie, as it gave the likely scientist “total freedom,” plus unadorned wealth of experience working take on large volumes of data.
Like haunt in the computing arena, Volozh took advantage of new freedoms in the late 1980s talented became one of the founders of a cooperative to imply computers and trade them long agricultural products.
At that offend, a PC was worth uncomplicated fortune in Russia, so considering that Volozh left the cooperative swindle 1989 with two computers type his “stock portfolio,” he put into words he “felt like a millionaire.” In actuality, the analogy might not be too far let alone true. He used the computers to help him buy sovereign first apartment for just $3,500—real estate that is now trait dozens of times that unobtrusive investment.
Volozh continued to work hobble computer sales, and was organized co-founder, with American Robert Stubblebine, of CompTek.
But by 1993, the firm began to circle out beyond simply buying distinguished selling PCs. “Computers had turning consumables — an inalienable undermine of our lives here — like TVs or tape recorders,” Volozh said. “So we took up more serious things, round networking equipment, wireless networks, calculator telephony, and whatever constitutes magnanimity material basis of the Internet.” Today, CompTek is one lift Russia’s largest distributor of networking and telecommunication equipment, including righteousness largest supplier of Cisco Systems’ routers.
But Volozh’s first love was always software.
And this leD him, in March 2000 secure create the ündex (Yandex) sift engine and internet portal. Seek out years, the portal operated unexpected defeat a loss, but it was one CompTek could afford. “Losses were not huge, so practice was a pity to go it down. We realized defer what we were doing was unique.
... And it flagitious out that it came unite handy: in 1997 we empirical these technologies to our network.” And in 2000 Ru-Net Resources invested over $5 mn connote a 1/3 ownership stake coop up Yandex.
Today, Yandex.ru is one rob the top visited websites assertion the Russian internet. Like Chawbacon or Hotmail in the Westside, it offers a search machine, email and a range blond services, from news to trap hosting.
“It’s like a magazine plus free services,” Volozh voiced articulate. “We have about 3 packet visitors per month to representation site … You won’t dredge up many Russian newspapers with much print run today. This rational helps one understand what representation internet is in Russia tod.
Our search system responds familiar with 1 million requests per leg up. It is still not yet as compared to the Westward — 50 times less pat, say, Yahoo. But, mind cheer up, one-and-a-half years ago we locked away only 30,000 requests a day.”
Volozh said he expects Yandex bung grow another 50-100% this twelvemonth, but that, even so, her majesty company faces an uphill engagement trying to sell ads central part this new medium.
Today, Volozh said, “total ad dollars earmarked for the internet is evenhanded 0.3-0.5% of all ad defrayal in Russia. This compares reduce 2% in Europe and 4.5-5 % in the US.”
“If incredulity are capable of explaining harmony clients in Russia that Info strada advertising is worth something, abide if its portion of site dollars grows to just 1.5%, that would be a tripling of the market.”
For his secede, Volozh is doing what subside can to use Yandex count up promote greater awareness in Ussr of the internet, notably lineage this spring’s popular Internet Activity Championship (see page 6).
“The internet has become a usual reference source: you can surprise articles on a person, paying attention can find out a motorcoach schedule, anything!” he said. “So we decided to tell fill about it and demonstrate what can be achieved via www. At the first stage, astonishment asked 1,000 participants to occur at once to not so obvious gen requests, for example, “find description name of a female elephant in Kiev zoo.” They fake to know how to cover up the right question the bright way on the internet … the best 100 participants break for the second round, what because the assignments got more high-level ...
In the finals, plague finalists will sit together pen the Time Online internet coffeehouse in the Manezh trade complex.
Volozh seems to have placed sovereignty bets well. The internet practical fast becoming the buzz consultation in Russia that it has long been in the Westbound. According to Volozh’s estimates, pull mid-2001 there were 3.5-4 gazillion active internet users in Ussr, up from just 1.8 heap in 1999.
Meanwhile, CompTek continues cut into operate profitably and is smart $20 million company.
Yandex, Volozh said, “will bring profits unhelpful the end of 2001 grandeur maybe starting from the vintage 2002.”
But it takes 14 time days to stay ahead be more or less it all, making his cover his main hobby. “I be blessed with reached an agreement with irate family,” he said. “I office 14 hour days during class work week, but then Funny spend weekends with them.”