Financial Data and Key Metrics Changes - Full year revenues grew 39% year-on-year excluding Yandex.Market, with consolidated revenue growth of 33% year-on-year in Q4 [7][16] - Adjusted net income in Q4 was down 22% year-on-year, primarily due to increased losses from equity method investments related to Yandex.Market [19] - Total online advertising revenues increased 16% year-on-year, with ex-TAC revenues up 38% compared to Q4 of 2018 [16][20] Business Line Data and Key Metrics Changes - Search and Portal revenues grew 16.2% year-on-year, with adjusted EBITDA margin at 43.8%, down 140 bps compared to a year ago [20] - Taxi segment revenues grew 72% year-on-year, driven by solid growth in ride-hailing and FoodTech, with ride-hailing GMV annual run rate at $6.2 billion [12][21] - Media Services revenue grew 96% year-on-year, mainly reflecting growth in subscription services and video advertising [22] Market Data and Key Metrics Changes - Mobile search share reached 54.6% on Android, up 160 basis points from September and 520 bps from December 2018 [9] - Zen's annual revenue run rate reached RUB8.8 billion, growing 49% year-on-year, with a daily audience of 13.4 million users [10] - Classifieds revenue grew 45% year-on-year, driven by listing fees and value-added services [21] Company Strategy and Development Direction - The company aims to continue focusing on the development of Zen and expects its revenues to grow at a similar pace [10] - Investments in self-driving technology are ongoing, with a focus on enhancing software and hardware capabilities [14] - The company is optimistic about the impact of new regulations mandating the installation of Russian software on mobile devices, which could benefit domestic players [9][34] Management's Comments on Operating Environment and Future Outlook - Management expressed confidence in maintaining market share despite competition, emphasizing the importance of product quality and technology [36] - The company expects ruble-based revenues to grow between 22% to 26% for the full year 2020 compared to 2019 [24] - Management noted that the Media Services segment is expected to continue incurring losses in 2020, similar to 2019 levels [70] Other Important Information - The company ended the quarter with approximately RUB88.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents [23] - A total of 460,000 Class A shares were repurchased as part of the share repurchase program [24] Q&A Session Summary Question: Key drivers of the slowdown in ad partner revenue - Management noted a mix shift in partners and a decrease in traffic received by partners, leading to declining absolute revenues from the ad network [27] Question: Impact of new legislation on market share and TAC - Management expects positive impacts from the legislation but noted it is too early to determine specific effects [34] Question: Trends in advertising sectors at the beginning of 2020 - Management observed continued weakness in the apparel segment and slower growth in finance, insurance, and real estate sectors [39] Question: Contribution of corporate taxi rides to revenue growth - Approximately 8 percentage points of revenue growth was attributed to the growth in B2B taxi rides [42] Question: Update on Yandex.Market partnership with Sberbank - Management expressed satisfaction with the performance of the joint venture and emphasized its exclusivity for e-commerce activities [53] Question: Margins of different segments, particularly in Taxi - The ride-hailing segment's margins are higher when excluding the loss-making FoodTech component [56]
Yandex(YNDX) - 2019 Q4 - Earnings Call Transcript