Considering company’s faster than expected growth, Russian tech giant Yandex is planning to spend around $650 million on e-commerce this year, Chief Financial Officer Svetlana Demyashkevich told Reuters. About half of the investments will be directed to expanding the logistics infrastructure, developing the company's own logistics platform, and improving e-commerce business. According to the company's forecasts, group e-commerce gross merchandise volumes (GMV) for 2021 will increase three-fold compared to 2020.

The company has updated the forecast for investments in the e-commerce direction (including marketplace Yandex.Market and foodtech services Yandex.Lavka, and Yandex.Eats) due to its accelerated growth. The plan to invest around $650 million in e-commerce will allow its GMV to grow 33% faster this year, Demyashkevich said.

Previously, the company planned to invest around $400-500 million in e-commerce.

Earlier Yandex announced strong second-quarter financial results and upgraded forecast of its 2021 revenue, expecting its total group revenues to be $4.49-$4.63 billion (330-340 billion rubles) for 2021, up from $4.13-$4.46 billion (315-330 billion rubles). Group e-commerce GMV for this period increased 2.5 times compared to the same period last year to $475 million (35.1 billion rubles).

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