At the rate that Google keeps taking slices of the global advertising pie, competitors may be hard pressed to compete! After negotiating a deal with Yahoo, they are flirting with Digg (which would neatly cut Microsoft out of the loop yet again), and now they are busily snapping up prospects abroad.
Rambler Media, a Russian company, is acquiring 49.9 % of their contextual ad service ’Begun’ from Bannatyne Limited so they can sell out to Google for a cool $140 million.
In addition, Google Ads will be shown alongside results on the Russian based site www.ramblers.ru, – as using Google results and advertising are part of the deal.
Google has been looking for footholds in Russia for sometime, but competition from Russian search engine Yandex has been fierce. Currently, Google accounts for not quite a third of the market share.
A deal with Aquarius earlier this month may help pave the way for higher numbers, however, as Google inked a deal to preinstall software on PCs and laptops sold in Russia. Google has a penchant for finding its way in the back door when major avenues seem impassable.