Russian search engine Yandex has opened a sales office in Ekaterinburg. This will be their regional commercial office will focus primarily on promoting Yandex’s advertising products both through partners and directly to consumers in the Ural region.

Currently, online audience in the regions is growing faster than in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. Urals has become the first region in Russia, after the two capitals, where Yandex will be selling advertising locally.

“Urals is ahead of other regions in terms of internet penetration and usage of Yandex search,” says Yandex CCO Alexei Tretyakov. “Text-based advertising converts people looking for goods online into paying clients. In fact, we offer companies an opportunity to build their own online sales channels leveraging existing online search demand for products and services.. An opportunity to increase sales at minimal costs is especially important under the economic crisis conditions, and we are determined to reach every local company explaining the advantages of text-based advertising.”

Currently, in Ekaterinburg alone there are 10 authorized Yandex partners, and for the Urals their number exceeds 60.