Yandex Announces First Quarter 2015 Financial Results

Q1 2015 Financial Highlights

• Revenues of RUR 12.3 billion (\$211.1 million), up 13% compared with Q1 2014
• Ex-TAC revenues (excluding traffic acquisition costs) up 16% compared with Q1 2014
• Income from operations of RUR 1.5 billion (\$25.5 million), down 45% compared with Q1 2014
• Adjusted EBITDA of RUR 3.6 billion (\$61.1 million), down 12% compared with Q1 2014
• Operating margin of 12.0%
• Adjusted EBITDA margin of 28.9%
• Adjustedex-TAC EBITDA margin of 37.1%
• Net income of RUR 2.1 billion (\$36.4 million), down 21% compared with Q1 2014
• Adjusted net income of RUR 2.2 billion (\$38.5 million), down 12% compared with Q1 2014
• Net income margin of 17.2%
• Adjusted net income margin of 18.2%
• Adjustedex-TAC net income margin of 23.4%
• Cash, cash equivalents and deposits of RUR 47.1 billion (\$805.5 million) as of March 31, 2015

"Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, we delivered good top-line performance with text-based advertising on our own sites growing 14%. The number of advertisers we serve grew sequentially as businesses continue to respond to the inherent advantages of contextual advertising," said Arkady Volozh, Chief Executive Officer of Yandex. "We will continue to invest in our key technologies and our people in order to deliver superior products to our advertisers and our users".

The following table provides a summary of key financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2015:

• Share of Russian search market (including mobile) averaged 58.6% in Q1 2015 (according to LiveInternet)
• Search queries in Russia grew 3% compared to Q1 2014
• Number of advertisers grew to 323,000, up 14% from Q1 2014 and up 2% from Q4 2014
• Selected as the default search provider in Mozilla Firefox in Turkey

Text-based advertising revenues increased 14% compared with Q1 2014 and constituted 93% of our total revenues.

Text-based advertising revenues from Yandex websites grew 14% compared with Q1 2014 and accounted for 68% of our total revenues in Q1 2015.

Text-based advertising revenues from our ad network increased 13% compared with Q1 2014 and contributed 25% of total revenues during Q1 2015.

Paid clicks on Yandex's and its partners' websites, in aggregate, increased 12% in Q1 2015 and our average cost per click in Q1 2015 increased 2% compared with Q1 2014.

Display advertising revenue, affected by the weak macroeconomic environment, decreased 16% compared to Q1 2014. As a result, the share of display advertising in our revenue structure shrank to 5% in Q1 2015 compared with 7% in Q1 2014.

Operating Costs and Expenses

Yandex's operating costs and expenses consist of cost of revenues, product development expenses, sales, general and administrative expenses (SG&A), and depreciation and amortization expenses (D&A). Apart from D&A, each of the above expense categories includes personnel-related costs and expenses, relevant office space rental, and related share-based compensation expense. Increases across all cost categories, excluding D&A, reflect investments in overall growth, including personnel. In Q1 2015, Yandex reduced the number of its full-time employees compared to Q4 2014, but our total headcount as of March 31, 2015 increased 9% compared to March 31, 2014. The total number of full-time employees was 5,603 as of March 31, 2015.