28 July 2025

.yandex New gTLD Application

28 July 2025

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New gTLD Application Submitted to ICANN by: YANDEX, LLC

String: yandex

Originally Posted: 13 June 2012

Application ID: 1-977-13382

Applicant Information

Full legal name

YANDEX, LLC

Address of the principal place of business

16, Lva Tolstogo Street

Moscow 119021

Phone number

+74957397000

Fax number

+74957397070

If applicable, website or URL

http:⁄⁄www.yandex.ru

Primary Contact

6(a). Name

Mr. Alexander Shulgin

6(b). Title

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

6(c). Address

6(d). Phone Number

+7 495 739 7000

6(e). Fax Number

+7 495 739 7000

6(f). Email Address

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Secondary Contact

7(a). Name

Ms. Tatiana Viktorovna Bakharevskaya

7(b). Title

Head of system administration department

7(c). Address

7(d). Phone Number

+7 916 603 0049

7(e). Fax Number

7(f). Email Address

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Proof of Legal Establishment

8(a). Legal form of the Applicant

YANDEX, LLC

8(b). State the specific national or other jursidiction that defines the type of entity identified in 8(a).

Russia

8(c). Attach evidence of the applicant's establishment.

Attachments are not displayed on this form.

9(a). If applying company is publicly traded, provide the exchange and symbol.

9(b). If the applying entity is a subsidiary, provide the parent company.

Yandex, N.V.

9(c). If the applying entity is a joint venture, list all joint venture partners.

Applicant Background

11(a). Name(s) and position(s) of all directors

Arkady Volozh Chief Executive Officer

11(b). Name(s) and position(s) of all officers and partners

Alexander Shulgin Chief Financial Officer

Arkady Volozh Chief Executive Officer

Ilya Segalovich Chief Technology Officer

11(c). Name(s) and position(s) of all shareholders holding at least 15% of shares

Yandex, N.V. Not Applicable

11(d). For an applying entity that does not have directors, officers, partners, or shareholders: Name(s) and position(s) of all individuals having legal or executive responsibility

Applied-for gTLD string

Provide the applied-for gTLD string. If an IDN, provide the U-label.

yandex

14(a). If an IDN, provide the A-label (beginning with "xn--").

14(b). If an IDN, provide the meaning or restatement of the string in English, that is, a description of the literal meaning of the string in the opinion of the applicant.

14(c). If an IDN, provide the language of the label (in English).

14(c). If an IDN, provide the language of the label (as referenced by ISO-639-1).

14(d). If an IDN, provide the script of the label (in English).

14(d). If an IDN, provide the script of the label (as referenced by ISO 15924).

14(e). If an IDN, list all code points contained in the U-label according to Unicode form.

15(a). If an IDN, Attach IDN Tables for the proposed registry.

Attachments are not displayed on this form.

15(b). Describe the process used for development of the IDN tables submitted, including consultations and sources used.

15(c). List any variant strings to the applied-for gTLD string according to the relevant IDN tables.

Describe the applicant's efforts to ensure that there are no known operational or rendering problems concerning the applied-for gTLD string. If such issues are known, describe steps that will be taken to mitigate these issues in software and other applications.

The string applied for is consistent with the protocols established and in use within the Internet for over 25 years, and is coded according to the rules of the ASCII character set.

(OPTIONAL) Provide a representation of the label according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/).

Mission/Purpose

18(a). Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD.

Who we are:-

Yandex, LLC is the leading internet company in Russia, operating the most popular search engine and the most visited website. We generated 63.3% of all search traffic in Russia in 2011 and 60.6% in December 2011, and our Yandex sites attracted 45 million unique visitors in December 2011. We also operate in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey. Our mission is to answer any question internet users may have. To that end, we utilize our capabilities in applied mathematics and data analysis and our in-depth knowledge of the languages, cultures and preferences of internet users in our markets to develop advanced search technology and information retrieval services. We also aggregate and organize extensive local, national and international content and offer a broad range of additional services. Our search and many of our services are location-based and are available in versions tailored for mobile and other digital platforms and devices.

Benefiting from Russia’s long-standing educational focus on mathematics and engineering, we have drawn upon the considerable local talent pool to create a leading technology company. For over 20 years, our founding team has been developing and optimizing search technology, which has formed the core of our business and helped Yandex become one of the best known brands in Russia. Our users are our first priority, and we are committed to advancing our technology to continuously improve their internet experience.

Our search engine uses our proprietary algorithms to provide relevant results, which we structure and present in an editorially neutral and user-friendly manner. With a focus on our principal geographic markets, our search technology allows us to provide local search results in more than 1,400 cities. We also feature ‘‘parallel’’ search, which presents on a single page the results from both our main web index and our specialized information resources, including news, shopping, blogs, images and videos. We offer convenient access to our search engine through personal computers, mobile phones, tablets, and navigation and other digital devices. We also offer a wide range of specialized search, personalized and location-based services, including Yandex.News, Yandex.Market, Yandex.Mail and Yandex.Maps.

Our homepage attracted over 40 million unique visitors in December 2011, accounting for 76% of the Russian internet audience in December 2011, according to comScore, and provides a gateway to the wealth of information available online. Users can find answers to their explicit questions through our search box, as well as their implicit questions through current news, weather and road traffic reports, TV and movie schedules, personal email and other services. Our homepage can easily be customized by users to address their individual interests.

We derive substantially all of our revenues from online advertising. We enable advertisers to deliver targeted, cost-effective ads that are relevant to our users’ needs, interests and locations. Most of our revenues are derived from text-based advertising, which uses keywords selected by our advertisers to deliver ads based on a particular user query, the content of a website or webpage being viewed, or user behavior or characteristics. We derive a smaller portion of our revenues from display advertising, which principally consists of graphical ads that appear on specific webpages. Our ads are clearly marked and are separate from our organic search results and from the content of the webpages on which they may also appear. We do not serve intrusive ads, such as ‘‘pop-ups,’’ that might detract from our users’ experience.

In addition to serving ads on our own search results and other webpages, we deliver ads to the thousands of third-party websites that make up our Yandex ad network. Through our ad network, we generate revenue for both our network partners and us and extend the audience reach of our advertisers. Our Yandex.Direct service, the largest automated, auction-based system for the placement of text-based advertising in Russia, makes it easy for advertisers to bid for desired keywords and to obtain the best price for their ads. We served ads for more than 173,000 advertisers in the fourth quarter of 2011 and more than 270,000 in the full year 2011, compared with more than 120,000 in the fourth quarter of 2010 and 180,000 in the full year 2010, including many small and medium-sized businesses throughout Russia and the other countries in which we operate.

Our Existing Services:-

We offer a broad range of search, location-based, personalized and mobile services that are free to our users and that enable them to find relevant and objective information quickly and easily and to

communicate and connect over the internet, from both their desktops and mobile devices.

We operate on a multitude of domain names generic and cctLD e.g yandex.com, yandex.ru

Yandex Search

Our search engine offers almost instantaneous access to the vast range of information available online.

Yandex Homepage

Our homepage provides a gateway to the wealth of information available online.

Yandex.News.

Our news aggregation and information service, the most visited online news aggregation service in Russia.

Yandex.Market

Our price comparison service, the most popular such service in Russia.

Yandex.Mail

Provides users fast and easy access to their email accounts, has 17.6 million users, according to comScore.

We believe this makes us the second largest provider of free email services in Russia.

Yandex.Maps

Our map service is the most popular map service in Russia, with 13.9 million unique visitors in December 2011.

Yandex.Server

Our server application for indexing and searching files in various popular formats on web servers, local networks and database management systems

Yandex.Direct

Our auction-based advertising placement service

Mission and purpose:-

The mission and purpose of this TLD is to provide a global, consistent identity on the Internet of .yandex and all related institutions. As such, .yandex intends to limit registration of domains either for its exclusive use or for use by closely affiliated organizations in a manner that contributes to the purpose of this TLD. .yandex also intends to govern the domain names registered to limit confusion and enhance user experience. To accomplish these objectives, .yandex may be the sole registrant of domains in the TLD. However, due consideration has been made to all aspects of registry operations including the functions and policies defined below.

Goals

Our business depends on a strong brand, and failing to maintain and enhance our brand would harm our ability to expand our base of users, advertisers and network partners.

We believe that the brand identity that we have developed through the strength of our technology and our user focus has significantly contributed to the success of our business. We also believe that

maintaining and enhancing the Yandex brand, is critical to expanding our base of users, advertisers, network partners, and other business partners.

We therefore propose the gTLD of .yandex to become the focal point of our Internet presence for our external services and to become our naming strategy for our products and internet projects.

18(b). How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

18(b)

We propose .yandex to be a restricted gTLD for the internal use of Yandex, LLC and its affiliated entities.

We believe that satisfied users are the best and most credible advocates for our services. In order to improve user satisfaction and loyalty and to continue to use our products and services as marketing tools, we constantly experiment with and improve the design, technology and interface of these products and services, we believe having all our services promoted from a single consistent gTLD will make it easier for our users to access and utilize our services.

*** Yandex, LLC’s Registration Policy

Domain Name Licenses Upon registration of a Domain Name, the Registrant holds a license to use the Domain Name for a specified period in accordance with the Registry Rules. Domain Names may be registered and renewed for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 years.

Selection of Registrars Registrars eligible to register domain names must meet the following non-discriminatory criteria (in compliance with clause 2.9 (a) of the Registry Agreement):

(i) be an accredited ICANN Registrar;

(ii) demonstrate a level of understanding of the Domain Name registration policies of the Registry;

(iii) have experience managing the Domain Names of major corporations;

(iv) have proven tools for domain name portfolio management;

(v) have business processes to perform automated validation (and any additional human checks as required by the Registry) of the eligibility of the domain name for registration according to the Domain Name policies of the Yandex, LLC;

(vi) demonstrate a sufficient level of security to protect against unauthorized access to the Domain Name records;

(vii) demonstrate experience and have appropriate resources in managing abuse prevention, mitigation and responses;

(viii) provide multi-language support for the registration of IDNs;

(ix) comply with any re-validation of its Registry-Registrar agreement at a regular interval as determined by the Registry or as required by ICANN from time to time;

(x) meet applicable technical requirements of the Yandex, LLC; and

(xi) comply with all conditions, dependencies, policies and other requirements reasonably imposed by Yandex, LLC, including maintenance of suitable systems and applications that are capable of interacting with the Registry system.

Eligible Registrants The Registrant must be:

(i) an Affiliate entity of Yandex, LLC; or

(ii) an organisation explicitly authorized by Yandex, LLC; or

(iii) a natural person explicitly authorized by Yandex, LLC.

If the Registrant does not meet one of the above eligibility criteria, there is no entitlement to register a Domain Name under the .Yandex, LLC.

If the Registrant ceases to be eligible at any time in future, the Registry may cancel or suspend the licence to use the Domain Name immediately.

Registry approval requirement

Registration of Domain Names under .Yandex, LLC must be approved by Yandex, LLC in addition to meeting all requirements under the Registry Rules. Yandex, LLC’s approval for complete and valid application submitted will be authorised by:

(i) Yandex Hostmaster (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) (“Authorization Provider”); or

(ii) an authorized person as nominated by Yandex, LLC (“Authorised Person”) and notified to Registrar from time to time.

Authorisation Provider will notify the Registrar of its decision.

Required criteria for Domain Name registration

An application for Domain Name registration must meet all the following criteria:

(i) availability;

the Domain Name is not already registered;
it is not reserved or blocked by the Registry; or
it meets all Registry’s technical requirements;

(ii) technical requirements;

a maximum of 63 characters (after its conversion into the ASCII for IDNs);
use of characters selected from the list of supported characters as nominated by the Registry;

(iii) the Domain Name must be consistent with the mission and purposes of the gTLD and consistent with the Domain Name registration policy of Yandex, LLC, and include but not be limited to:

product name;
service name;
marketing term;
geographic identifier; or
any relevant name or term as approved by Authorisation Provider or Authorised Person.

(iv) compliance with all requirements under the Registry Rules: the Registrant must comply with all provisions contained in the Registry Rules.

Obligation of Registrants

The Registrant must enter into an agreement with the Registrar for Domain Name registration under which the Registrant will be bound by the Registry Rules specified through the Registry-Registrar agreement as amended by the Registry from time to time.

The Registrant must also agree to be bound by the minimum requirements in clause 3.7.7 of ICANNʹs Registrar accreditation agreement.

The Registrant represents and warrants that:

(i) it meets, and will continue to meet, the eligibility criteria at all times and must notify the Registrar if it ceases to meet such criteria;

(ii) the registration, renewal and use of the Domain Name does not violate any third party intellectual property rights, applicable laws or regulation;

(iii) it is entitled to register the Domain Name;

(iv) the registration and use of the Domain Name is made in good faith and for a lawful purpose;

(v) if the use of registered Domain Name is licensed to a third party,

the Registrant must have a licencing agreement with the licensee for the use of the Domain Name that is not less onerous than the obligation of the Registrant contained in the Registry Rules; and
where there is a breach of any provisions contained in the Registry Rules by the licensee of the Domain Name, Registry may revoke the Domain Name at its sole discretion.

(vi) it owns or otherwise has the right to provide all registration data (including personal information) for each Domain Name registered and provision of such registrant data complies with all applicable data protection laws and regulations; and

(vii) It has appropriate consent and licences to allow for publication of registration data in the WHOIS database.

Registrant contact information

The Registrant must provide complete and accurate contact information of the Registrant (in accordance with clause 3.7.7.1 of the ICANN’s Registrar accreditation agreement), including but not limited to the following;

(i) if the Registrant is a company or organization:

name of a company or organization;
registered office and principal place of business; and
contact details of the Registrant including e-mail address and telephone number;

(ii) if the Registrant is a natural person:

full name of the Registrant;
address of the Registrant; and
contact details of the Registrant including e-mail address and telephone number.

All Registrant contact information must be complete and accurate.

Any changes to such Registrant information must be promptly notified to the Registrar, and no later than one (1) month of such change.

Revocation of Domain Names

The Registrant acknowledges that the Registry may revoke a Domain Name immediately at its sole discretion:

(i) in the event the Registrant breaches any Registry Rules;

(ii) to comply with applicable law, court order, government rule or under any dispute resolution processes;

(iii) where such Domain Name is used for any of the following prohibited activities (Prohibited Activities):

spamming;
intellectual property and privacy violations;
obscene speech or materials;
defamatory or abusive language;
forging headers, return addresses and internet protocol addresses;’
illegal or unauthorised access to other computers or networks;
distribution of internet viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other destructive activities; and
any other illegal or prohibited activities as determined by the Registry.

(iv) in order to protect the integrity and stability of the domain name system and the Registry;

(v) where such Domain Name is placed under reserved names list at any time; and

(vi) where Registrant fails to make payment to the Registrar for registration, renewal or any other relevant services.

Use of second or third level IDNs

In addition to meeting all required criteria for registration of domain names above, an application for an IDN Domain Name must:

(i) meet all technical requirement for the applicable IDN;

(ii) comply with the IDN tables used by the Registry as amended from time to time; and

Use of Geographic names

All two-character labels and country and territory names will be initially reserved in accordance with specification 5 of the Registry Agreement.

Upon approval from ICANN and any other guidelines by applicable governments and ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee, the Registry may release the two-character labels and country and territory names in accordance with Yandex, LLC’s response to Question 22 Geographic Names.

Reserved Names The Registry may place certain names in its reserved list from time to time where:

(i) the Registry believes in its sole discretion that use of such names may pose a risk to the operational stability or integrity of the Registry;

(ii) in accordance with ICANN’s specifications contained in the Registry Agreement, guidelines or recommendations;

(iii) there is a risk of trademark infringement or where the name otherwise may cause confusion taking into consideration the mission and purpose of the gTLD; or

(iv) the Registry in its sole discretion decides certain names to be reserved for any reason.

Allocation of Domain Name

The Registry will register Domain Names on a first-come, first-served basis in accordance with the Registry Rules.

The Registry does not provide pre-registration or reservation of Domain Names.

Limitation on registration ⁄ Domain Name licences

There is no restriction on the number of Domain Names any Registrant may hold.

The Registrant may further licence the use of the Domain Name to any third parties provided that the Registrant enters into an agreement with such third parties on the terms not less onerous than its obligations under the Registry Rules.

Protection of third party intellectual property rights

The Registry will implement all rights protection measures as required by ICANN in clause 2.8 of the Registry Agreement, including the use of the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) procedure, and Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

Term of registration ⁄ renewal Initial term of registration:

A Domain Name can be registered for a period between one (1) to ten (10) years.

Renewal of registration:

(i) The term may be extended at any time for a period between one (1) to ten (10) years, provided that the total aggregate term of the Domain Name does not exceed ten (10) years at any time.

(ii) Upon change of sponsorship of the Domain Name from one Registrar to another, according to Part A of the ICANN Policy on Transfer of Registrations between Registrars, the term of registration of registered Domain Name will be extended by one year, provided that the maximum term of registration at any time does not exceed ten (10) years.

(iii) The change of sponsorship of registration of Domain Name from one Registrar to another, accordingly to Part B of the ICANN Policy on Transfer of Registrations between Registrars will not result in the extension of the term of registration.

Cancellation of registration:

The Registrant may cancel a Domain Name registration at any time by submitting its request with the Registrar.

Auto-renewal:

Upon expiry of the Domain Name, the Registry will auto-renew the Domain Name for a one year term (1) year term unless the Registrant submits its intention not to renew the Domain Name.

The Registry will implement the business rules for renewal of Domain Names documented in appendix 7 of the .com Registry Agreement.

Transfer of Domain Names between registrants

Any transfer of a Domain Name between Registrants must be approved by the Registry through the Registrar.

The legal heirs of the Registrant or purchaser of the Registrant may request the transfer provided that they meet the eligibility criteria for registration under .Yandex, LLC.

If the Registrant becomes subject to insolvency or any other proceeding, the administrator may request the transfer. The transferee must provide appropriate documentation as required by Registry to approve such transfer.

Change of Registrar

If the agreement between the Registry and the Registrar is terminated and if the Registrar has not transferred its Domain Name portfolio to another Registrar, the Registry will notify affected Registrants. The Registrants must select a new Registrar within one (1) month following such notice from the Registry. If the Registrant fails to appoint a new Registrar within the timeframe set out above, the Registry may suspend the Domain Name.

If the Registrant wishes to change the Registrar, the Registrant must obtain the auth-info code from the Registrantʹs current Registrar, and request a transfer through the gaining Registrar in compliance with ICANNʹs Inter-Registrar transfer policy.

Privacy and Data Protection

By registering a Domain Name, the registrant authorises the Registry to process personal information and other data required for the operation of the .yandex. The Registry will only use the data for the operation of the Registry including but not limited to its internal use, communication with the Registrant, and provision of WHOIS look-up facility.

The Registry may only transfer the data to third parties:

(i) with the Registrant’s consent;

(ii) in order to comply with laws, regulations or orders by a competent public authority and any Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers; or

(iii) for a publicly available and searchable WHOIS look-up facility, in accordance with specification 4 of the Registry Agreement.

WHOIS The Registry provides a publicly available and searchable WHOIS look up facility, where information about the Domain Nameʹs status (including creation and expiry dates), and registrant, administrative and the technical contact administering the Domain Name can be found, in accordance with specification 4 of the Registry Agreement.

In order to prevent misuse of the WHOIS look up facility, the Registry requires any person submitting a WHOIS database query will be required to read and agree to the terms and conditions, which informs that:

(i) the WHOIS database is provided for information purposes only; and

(ii) the user agrees not to use the WHOIS information to allow or enable the transmission of unsolicited commercial advertising or other communication via email or other methods to the Registrants.

Pricing ⁄ Payment

The new gTLD does not charge a separate fee for the Registrar to register domain names, as the gTLD is used only for the mission and purpose of Yandex, LLC. Yandex, LLC bears the cost of operating the Registry. The Registry will provide Registrars with 30 days’ notice of any price change for new registrations, and 180 days advance notice of any price change for renewals in accordance with clause 2.10 of the Registry Agreement.

Dispute Resolution

The Registrant agrees to be bound by ICANN’s Dispute Resolution Policies in respect of all disputes in connection with the Domain Name.

Compliance with Consensus and Temporary Policies

The Registrant agrees to be bound by all applicable consensus and temporary policies as required and mandated by ICANN.

Definitions

Affiliate means in relation to a party any corporation or other business entity controlling, controlled by, or under common control of that party and for the purposes of this definition, a corporation or other business entity shall be deemed to control another corporation or business entity if it owns directly or indirectly:

(i) fifty percent (50%) or more of the voting securities or voting interest in any such corporation or other entity; or

(ii) fifty percent (50%) or more of the interest in the profit or income in the case of a business entity other than a corporation; or

(iii) in the case of a partnership, any other compatible interest equal to at least a fifty percent (50%) share in the general partner.

Domain Name means a domain name registered directly under the .yandex or for which a request or application for registration has been filed with the Registry;

ICANN’s Dispute Policy means the dispute policy currently known as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) issued and as may be updated from time to time by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Number (ICANN) and the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) (see Specification 7 of the Registry Agreement).

Registrar means an ICANN accredited registrar which enters into and is in compliance with the registry-registrar agreement for the TLD, and which provides domain name registration services to Registrants;

Registry means Neustar Inc

Registry Agreement means the agreement between Yandex, LLC and ICANN;

Registry Rules mean:

(i) Registration terms and conditions agreed between the Registry and Registrant for registration of a Domain Name; and

(ii) Registration policies provided and amended by the Registry from time to time.

Registrant means a natural person, company or organisation who holds a Domain Name registration or who has requested or applied for the registration of a Domain Name;

Privacy Protection

We will be offering the same level of privacy protection that we offer currently across all our products and services.

You can see the current full version of our Privacy Policy here: http:⁄⁄legal.yandex.ru⁄confidential⁄?ncrnd=7914

Authentication of Registrant Information

Initially, Yandex, LLC will only allow domain name registrations from its own corporate entity and from other affiliated entities which it has authenticated. All information will be verified by Yandex, LLC as complete and accurate at the time of registration.

Monitoring of Registration Data

As a restricted gTLD, initially, Yandex, LLC will ensure that all registration data is kept accurate, reliable and up-to-date. To the extent that Yandex, LLC subsequently allows registrations by unaffiliated third parties, Yandex, LLC commits to conduct regular audits to monitor registration data for accuracy and completeness, and establish policies and procedures to address domain names with inaccurate or incomplete WHOIS data.

18(c). What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs?

As stated in the responses to Questions 18(b), 28 and 29 Yandex, LLC has developed complete Registration Policies, Registry Acceptable Use Policies, UDRP ⁄ URS Policies and Trademark ⁄ Sunrise Procedures designed to minimize negative consequences for potential .yandex registrants.