Early Life and Education
Arkady Volozh was born on February 11, 1964, in Guryev, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union (now Atyrau, Kazakhstan) into a Russian-Jewish family. His father was a petroleum geologist, and his mother was a music teacher. Volozh attended the Republican School of Physics and Mathematics in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and later studied applied mathematics at the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas in Moscow, graduating in 1986. He later received a Ph.D. from the Institute of Control Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1988.
Rise to Success
Volozh began his entrepreneurial journey in the late 1980s, co-founding CompTek International in 1989, a distributor of network and telecommunications equipment. His work on search technology began in 1989, leading to the founding of Arkadia Company in 1990, which developed search software. The Yandex search engine was launched on September 23, 1997, and quickly became a dominant player in the Russian search market. By 2019, Yandex held approximately 72% of the Russian search market.
Key Business Strategies
Volozh's key strategy was to create search technology tailored to the Cyrillic alphabet and the Russian language. This focus allowed Yandex to gain a strong foothold in the Russian market, where it continues to maintain its dominance. In 2007, Volozh established the Yandex School of Data Analysis, a free master's level program in data science, which contributed to the advancement of tech education in Russia.
Philanthropy
While specific philanthropy amounts are not readily available in the search results, Volozh's commitment to technology and education is demonstrated through the Yandex School of Data Analysis, which supports talented engineers. Moreover, his support for employees who decided to leave Russia and start a new life in the wake of the Ukraine invasion demonstrates his compassion.