Auto.ru, one of the leading online auto classifieds sites in Russia, and its owner Yandex, have agreed a “strategic partnership,” with Hearst Shkulev Digital, a leading publishing house in Russia, as reported by the Russian business daily Kommersant last week.
As part of the deal, Yandex is acquiring HSD’s car classifieds sites across Russian regions. These include E1.Auto (Yekaterinburg), Autochel.ru (Chelyabinsk), NGS.Auto (Novosibirsk) and Аuto.29.ru (Arkhangelsk), among others. These sites will progressively be merged with Auto.ru.
However, the publishing house will further support these regional sites by attracting traffic, selling ad inventory, and providing content.
The amount of the deal has not been disclosed, but the business daily learned from unnamed sources that Yandex will pay some 500 million rubles (roughly $8.3 million at the current exchange rate) for the related databases, software, trademarks and 33 domains.
The deal will allow HSD to focus on classifieds for real estate and job search. “Thanks to our projects N1.ru and Zarplata.ru, we have objectively stronger market positioning and better prospects in these areas. In addition, we own local media with offices in fifteen major Russian cities, which are the main asset of our regional online business,” commented HSD General Manager Sergey Astapenko.
Founded in 1996, Auto.ru was acquired by Yandex in 2014 for $175 million. The website generates over 1.5 million daily views and over 10 million monthly views.
Auto.ru is historically strong in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, a market expert told Kommersant. However, the share of these two cities on the used cars market amounts to less than 20% of the whole Russian market. This seems to be the reason why Auto.ru needs to expand across Russia’s regions.
In Q1 2017, the revenue generated by Yandex’s own classifieds section rose by 54% and hit 371 million rubles ($6.1 million at the current exchange rate), according to Kommersant.
Avito, the leading classifieds platform in Russia, and Drom.ru, are two other major players in the online car classifieds segment.
In May this year Mail.Ru Group, a rival of Yandex on the Russian Internet scene, acquired Am.ru for $10 million. This car classifieds site has a relatively modest audience, complementing that of the group’s own car classifieds platform..
