EU Google probe encourages investors in Russia competitor Yandex

WAITING TO POUNCE: If Google were forced to stop bundling its product suite with phones using the Android operating system, that could open the way for Yandex to expand its mobile market share and ad revenue.

NEW YORK: The European Union's antitrust probe into Google sparked a big rally in Russian search engine Yandex NV last week, even though the "Russian Google" still faces significant challenges, competitive and otherwise. 

Yandex has amassed a US$6.54bil (RM23.62bil) market capitalisation, mainly by selling advertising against the web browser used on 64% of Russian desktop computers.