Search Engine Competition
Google’s primary competitor in Russia is Yandex, their leading search engine. However, Yandex filed a complaint against Google, and consequently, Google was found guilty of violating Russian Competition Law. The complaint was based on the fact that the US Internet blocked other service providers and, according to Russia, abused its power in the Android market. Last December, Google forced producers of Android devices to cut of all ties with competitor applications. It did so by preventing those devices from using its services, should they work with competitor applications. However, this included apps such as Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, and the Google Play store – some of the most popular apps for any Android user. Rather than risking their customer base, smartphone companies gave up their partnership with competitor applications, such as search engines like Yandex.
In this situation there arises a network of partnerships between companies. For example, Google is connected to smartphone companies such as Fly, Prestigio, and Explay. These smartphone companies are also connected to Yandex – however, Yandex and Google are not connected because they are not in a partnership. As evidenced by this scenario, Google clearly has more power in this network than Yandex. Smartphone companies require the Google applications, and thus, are dependent on Google. These smartphone companies have to pick one relationship for an exchange, and since there is far more value in their partnership with Google, they will exclude Yandex.
http://in.rbth.com/economics/business/2015/10/14/rusian-search-engine-beats-google_482645