Yandex to Launch Big Data Service

Russian search engine leader Yandex is developing custom-made big data solutions for businesses under the brand Yandex Data Factory.

The new project is being developed in offices in Moscow and Amsterdam, and will integrate Yandex technologies for machine learning, image and voice recognition, deep neural networks, and natural voice processing, to help clients make use of their data - including sensor readings, audio and video recordings, and information about orders and transactions. It also boasts a team of experts, having opened the Yandex School of Data Analysis for graduate and postgraduate students in computer science and data analysis, in 2007; and its own Faculty of Computer Science, including a Department of Big Data and Information Retrieval in partnership with Moscow's Higher School of Economics earlier this year.

The firm says it has completed 'a few' pilot projects with partner companies, including a road and transportation management agency looking to forecast traffic jams and accidents, and a bank developing personalized offers to boost sales of banking products.

Jane Zavalishina, who heads up the new venture, comments: 'Using machine learning to analyse 'big data' is a very promising new sphere. Yandex Data Factory uses algorithms that Yandex developed for its own needs: search, traffic forecasting, ad targeting, music recommendations... which can be applied in any industry: from banking to telecommunications, from logistics to oil and gas extraction, from public utility services to aircraft engineering.'

Web site www.yandex.ru .