The Russian search and advertising company Yandex is one of the few competitors of Google that has won an antitrust case against the multinational tech company. In October the country's antitrust authority ruled that the search giant broke Russia's national laws by adding bundled apps and services on Android smartphones.
Yandex is an 18-year-old Russian company. Although it not a large global corporation, it is big in the country and earned $233.1 million in Q3 of this year, according to Re/code.
In fact, it is the most popular search engine in the country. In Q3 about 57 percent of the population used it, although that figure has dropped in recent years.
The Russian company complained that it has been losing customers due to Google's apps on Android mobile phones. The number of Android OS phones is drastically higher than the number of iPhone handsets.
Yandex then joined forces with Lenovo and Microsoft. Its homepage is now the default for Russia's Windows 10 OS.
The tech company is also joining in the European Union's probe of Android. It started in April.
Roman Krupenin is Yandex's legal head of IT. He explained that the company targeted Android instead of Google Search because it was unable to pre-install its search software. In fact, it had lost some long-term business partners because they could not pre-install any Yandex services.
The problem happened around the summer or fall of 2014. At that time Google Search was pre-installed on about 20 percent of all Russian Android devices.
Krupenin explained that his company won its antitrust case against Google because it proved the American company's actions caused harm to consumers and competition. In addition, Google makes up over 80 percent of Russia's smartphone market.
Google is now appealing the antitrust charges against it. The Russian tech company is willing to go through the process.
Yandex is also Google's rival in Turkey and many former Soviet Republics, according to Reuters. Its business expansion into other European countries could be based on various factors such as the EU's investigation.