Russia’s Yandex starts talks to preinstall apps on mobile devices

MOSCOW, Oct 28 (PRIME) -- Russian Internet giant Yandex, which has recently won a case against Google for abuse of dominance on the market of preinstalled applications on Android devices, has initiated talks with producers of mobile devices on preinstallation of its applications, General Director Alexander Shulgin said late Tuesday.

“We started talks immediately after the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s decision. We’ve had contacts with (producers of gadgets) earlier, but our hands were tied in a sense,” Shulgin told a conference call.

The antitrust service in September ordered the U.S. giant to eliminate all violations, including a ban for gadget makers to preinstall applications of other companies, by November 18.

“We see a lot of interest from (producers) in doing business with Yandex and preinstalling Yandex applications, but they are wary of Google’s reaction. They understand that Google could file an appeal. I expect we will be able to say something certain on possible deals during our next phone conference (dedicated to October–December results),” Shulgin said.

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