What Yell.ru does

Yell.ru is a Russian online business directory and review platform operated by ООО «ЛИДОКОЛ» (LIDOKOL LLC), headquartered in Moscow. Founded in 1998, the platform catalogs local businesses and services across at least 18 major Russian cities — including Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, and Kazan — organized by city, district, and metro station to capture granular local search intent. As of the source data, Moscow alone hosts 701,888+ listed organizations and 1,760,847+ user reviews spanning categories such as medical services (33,148 organizations), beauty salons (23,281), restaurants (37,893), retail stores (191,621), auto services (16,561), repair services (25,679), and sports and fitness (14,433). All reviews are verified by an internal moderation team, providing a quality-controlled social proof layer for consumers.

The underlying technology is a web-based directory platform with SEO-optimized category pages, a user review and rating system, and a company listing management layer. The platform serves two primary segments: Russian consumers searching for and comparing local service providers, and local businesses seeking online visibility and customer acquisition. Distribution is web-only (no mobile app), with self-service registration for businesses and organic search as the primary traffic acquisition channel, supplemented by a content marketing blog at blog.yell.ru.

The business model combines (1) subscription-based business profiles via the Yell Business portal and (2) advertising/featured placement for premium positioning within category and search result pages. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; interested SMBs are directed to contact the platform. The company is privately held by LIDOKOL LLC (ОГРН: 1217700454014), operates with 51-100 employees, and last raised external capital in June 2014 — an $11 million round led by VNV Global with participation from Kinnevik. No subsequent funding rounds, M&A activity, partnerships, leadership changes, or notable product launches beyond the core directory structure are documented in the source material.

Name

Yell.ru

Legal name

ООО «ЛИДОКОЛ» (LIDOKOL LLC)

Website

https://yell.ru

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Yell.ru is a Russian online business directory and review platform operated by LIDOKOL LLC, listing 700,000+ businesses across 18+ Russian cities. It serves Russian consumers searching for local services and SMBs seeking online visibility through subscriptions and featured listings.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Business Directory

NAICS

Advertising Agencies (541810), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (54191)

SIC

Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Reputation Measurement, Auditing & Sentiment Analytics (MPAAAOAO)

akta.pro secondary industry

Brand Safety, Monitoring & Social Listening (MPAAAOAA)

Keywords

• Online business directory
• Local business search
• User review platform
• Company listings
• Local search engine

Headquarters

HQ city

Moscow

HQ country

Russia

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Business Listings: Companies can create and manage their business profiles on Yell Business platform to gain visibility among consumers searching for local services.
2. Featured Company Listings: Companies can pay for premium placement and enhanced visibility within the platform's category pages and search results.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Yell.ru is a Russian-language online business directory and review platform that lets consumers search, compare, and review local businesses across 18+ Russian cities. It aggregates more than 701,888 business listings and 1,760,847 user reviews in Moscow alone, covering categories such as medicine, beauty, restaurants, retail, auto services, repair, and sports/fitness. The platform also monetizes through its Yell Business portal, where local businesses can purchase subscriptions and featured placements for enhanced visibility.

Product overview

Yell.ru is a Russian business directory and review platform operating as a single unified product with multiple service verticals. The core platform provides a searchable business directory with integrated user reviews and ratings. It covers major service categories including medical services (33,148 organizations), beauty salons (23,281 addresses), retail stores (191,621 addresses), sports and fitness (14,433 organizations), restaurants (37,893 establishments), auto services (16,561 addresses), and repair services (25,679 addresses). The platform serves Moscow and other Russian cities with a total database of over 700,000 businesses and 1.7 million user reviews. All listings are organized by category, metro station, district, and service type with user ratings and pricing information where available.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Yell.ru Business Directory A Russian-language web-based business directory and review platform featuring 701,888+ organizations in Moscow and 1,760,847+ user reviews, enabling consumers to search, compare, and rate local businesses across medical, beauty, restaurant, retail, auto, repair, and sports/fitness categories in 18+ Russian cities. Organized by city, metro station, and category for local discovery.
• Yell Business Portal A self-service business portal that allows Russian local businesses to create and manage their company profiles, view and respond to reviews, and purchase premium/featured placement for enhanced visibility within category pages and search results. Targeted at SMBs seeking online customer acquisition.
• Company Review System A user-generated review and rating platform where consumers can read and write reviews about businesses, view ratings, and make informed decisions about local service providers. A moderation team verifies reviews for authenticity.

Quantifiable outcome

• Users can search across 700,000+ businesses and 1.7M+ reviews in Moscow alone

Named customers6 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Tripadvisor: Tripadvisor operates a large-scale user-generated reviews platform with featured/sponsored listings for businesses. While it focuses on travel and hospitality, its reviews-plus-monetization model is structurally similar to Yell.ru's restaurant and entertainment verticals.
• Google Maps: Google Maps is the global incumbent in local business discovery, integrating listings, reviews, and navigation. It serves as the broader benchmark for the local-business-discovery category in which Yell.ru operates.
• Yandex Maps: Yandex Maps is the dominant Russian mapping and local discovery service integrated into Yandex's broader ecosystem (search, navigation, transit). It is the principal incumbent competing with Yell.ru for Russian local business discovery traffic and advertising spend.

Emerging players

• Foursquare: Foursquare operates location-based discovery and local business tools with developer APIs. It is comparable to Yell.ru as a location-discovery platform but with a focus on technology/platform tools rather than a consumer reviews destination.

Direct peers

• Yelp: Yelp is the prototypical reviews-driven local business directory with subscription and advertising monetization for SMBs. Despite operating in different geographies, it is a highly comparable business model to Yell.ru's reviews-plus-featured-listings model.
• 2GIS: 2GIS is a leading Russian business directory and mapping platform with deep coverage of Russian cities. It is a direct competitor to Yell.ru, combining business listings, reviews, and mapping/navigation in an integrated mobile-first product.
• Zoon.ru: Zoon.ru is a Russian online directory of local businesses with reviews and ratings across categories including services, beauty, and medical. It competes directly with Yell.ru for both consumer traffic and SMB paid listings.
• Flamp: Flamp is a Russian business reviews platform owned by 2GIS, offering user-generated reviews and ratings for local businesses. It directly overlaps Yell.ru's reviews-driven discovery value proposition within the same Russian market.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/yellru
• Facebookfacebook.com/yellru
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/yell-ru

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Yell.ru