Istanbul: Yandex Trkiye has invested $50 million as part of a broader $400 million initiative to enhance its search engine services in Trkiye, as announced by Alexander Popovskiy, the general manager of Yandex Trkiye and CEO of Yandex Search International. Speaking at WORLDEF Istanbul 2025, Popovskiy highlighted Trkiye's dynamic and competitive e-commerce sector as a fertile ground for digital advancements.

According to Anadolu Agency, Popovskiy emphasized the unique nature of Trkiye's e-commerce, which accounts for approximately 20% of total retail turnover. Yandex aims to capitalize on this by positioning itself as a bridge between buyers and sellers, introducing the Yandex Trkiye Merchants platform to help merchants gain new traffic and manage their performance within Yandex search results.

Yandex is also enhancing its tools with Yandex Metrica, a free analytics tool designed to assist emerging e-commerce platforms in tracking user behavior. The company's advertising services, which reach over 100 million people globally, are being promoted to Turkish businesses to help them expand their reach and boost sales.

Popovskiy confirmed that Yandex Trkiye's $50 million investment is part of a previously announced $400 million commitment focused on enhancing its search engine. He hinted at future announcements involving improvements in Yandex services such as Yandex Maps.

Yazeka, Yandex's AI tool for providing detailed and source-based answers, has seen increased use among Turkish users. The tool now includes visual and video results to aid in finding complex information and offering deeper search insights.

On regulatory matters, Popovskiy praised Trkiye's approach to fostering competition in e-commerce, calling for similar frameworks for search engines and browsers. He argued for country-level regulations on global digital platforms to ensure user choice, supporting Trkiye's proposal to regulate digital platforms currently under parliamentary consideration.

Reflecting on the conference, Popovskiy noted the prominence of artificial intelligence discussions and expressed satisfaction with Trkiye's rapid adoption of these technologies. He affirmed Yandex's role as a pioneer in introducing AI in Turkish search results and expressed optimism about the industry's future trajectory.