Why “Yandex” and Google won’t open offices in Belarus?
“We cannot come here to dole”.
Euroradio has wondered: whether Google and “Yandex” have not made enough money to open offices in Minsk.
"We have not found a way to make our view of Internet business correspond to the demands of the Belarusian legislation and we keep looking for it. At the same time, it is possible to buy ads at “Yandex” with the help of a few dozen our agencies here”, - said Sergei Petrenko, “Yandex” director general in Ukraine.
It has turned out that “Yandex” has a small office in Belarus. However, it is a small office and they have not been able to open a big commercial office selling ads here so far.
"There are “Yandex” employees in Belarus. In the first place, there are staff members dealing with search development, analysts and a regional observer – they are our eyes and hands in Belarus. Secondly, we have a small development office”.
Sergei Petrenko was a bit cunning when he said that Belarusian programmers did not want to leave Belarus and preferred working here. It seems likely that “Yandex” does not want them to leave.
Belarusian agencies have been paying “Yandex” for advertisements in Belarusian roubles since May. There is a special account created for it. However, the question what “Yandex” does with this money arises.
"We use it for financial development here. There are events organized with our help, for example, the start-up weekend”.
Despite the fact that Google services are more popular in Belarus in comparison with “Yandex”, the company is not planning to start a business here either, said Stanislav Vidyayev, Google analyst in Russia.
