In an attempt to establish control over the Runet, the Russian government plans to launch its own search engine. The state Internet search engine will be called “Sputnik”, in honor of the first Soviet spacecraft launched into Earth orbit in 1957.
According to the Vedomosti newspaper, which refers to its sources, Rostelecom, a state-controlled telecommunications company, develops Sputnik. The latter invested $ 20 million in the project. "Rostelecom" is trying to lure to his own specialists working in other competing companies, the newspaper writes.
According to rumors, the new search engine will be installed in all government agencies and companies by default. The project is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2014.
Sputnik will have to compete with Yandex, which accounts for 62 percent of the Russian search engine market. Other major players in this market are the American giant Google and the Russian portal Mail.Ru.
Russia has recently strengthened state control over the Internet by launching a “black list” of sites that distribute prohibited content in Russia, such as child pornography, suicide propaganda and drugs.
However, foreign observers doubt that Sputnik will be able to shake the positions of Yandex or Google in the search market. Reuters news agency quotes analysts from the financial company Bank of America, who say that it takes a lot of experience to create a high-quality search engine. Rostelecom has no such experience.
The article is based on materials .
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