Revenues related to the Taxi segment, excluding sales of goods, grew 99% in Q2 2021 compared with Q2 2020 and accounted for 26% of total revenues, at a similar level as in Q2 2020. On a 2-year stack basis revenues related to the Taxi segment, excluding sales of goods grew by 44%. Revenues related to the Taxi segment include revenues from our Ride-hailing, Logistics, Yandex.Eats and Yandex.Drive businesses, but exclude revenues related to sales of goods from Yandex.Lavka. The increase of revenues related to the Taxi segment was attributed to the recovery of our Ride-hailing and Drive businesses driven by the acceleration of both rides and GMV growth (supported, among others, by the low base effect as the negative impact of the COVID pandemic on our ride-hailing operations peaked in Q2 2020) as well as the strong performance of the Logistics business.

Revenues related to sales of goods grew 365% in Q2 2021 compared with Q2 2020 and accounted for 16% of total revenues. Revenues related to sales of goods include revenues from Yandex.Market 1P sales, revenues from Yandex.Lavka, where we use a first-party (1P) business model and act as a direct retailer, and from our Devices business. This growth principally reflects the consolidation of Yandex.Market. On a like-for-like basis (including Yandex.Market in both Q2 2021 and Q2 2020) revenues related to sales of goods grew by 95% year on year mainly due to Yandex.Market 1P revenue growth, and to a lesser extent the strong performance of Yandex.Lavka and Devices businesses.

Other revenues grew 133% in Q2 2021 compared with Q2 2020 and amounted to 9% of total revenues. Other revenues include revenues from Media Services subscriptions, marketplace 3P fees and commissions, Yandex.Cloud, Education, and other services. On a like-for-like basis (including Yandex.Market's commissions and other marketplace revenues in both Q2 2021 and Q2 2020) other revenues grew 108% year-on-year. This growth was primarily driven by subscription revenues of Media Services and expansion of our Cloud businesses, which was partially offset by the decline in Yandex.Market commission revenue on the back of the lower blended take-rates.

Consolidated Operating Costs and Expenses

Our operating costs and expenses consist of cost of revenues, product development expenses, sales, general and administrative expenses (SG&A), depreciation and amortization expenses (D&A). Apart from D&A, each of the above expense categories include personnel-related costs and expenses, relevant office space rental, and related share-based compensation expense. Increases across all cost categories reflect investments in overall growth. In Q2 2021 our headcount increased by 1,859 full-time employees. The total number of full-time employees was 14,850 as of June 30, 2021, up by 14% compared with March 31, 2021, and up 45% from June 30, 2020, which is primarily driven by gradually accelerating pace of hiring, as well as the consolidation of Yandex.Market. On a like-for-like basis the growth of headcount was 28% YoY, which was primarily driven by accelerated pace of hiring in E-commerce (including Yandex.Market, Lavka and Yandex.Eats) as well as by the fast growth of Cloud, Media Services, Logistics and other businesses.

Cost of revenues, including traffic acquisition costs (TAC) 


 
In RUB millions                                                     Three months ended June    Six months ended June 
                                                                    30,                        30, 
                                                                    2020     2021      Change  2020    2021     Change 
TAC                                                                  4,155    6,231    50%      9,514   11,632  22% 
Total TAC as a % of total revenues                                  10.0%    7.7%              10.8%   7.5% 
Costs related to Taxi segment, excluding sales of goods              5,648    11,842   110%     12,399  22,043  78% 
Costs related to Taxi segment, excluding sales of goods as a % of   13.6%    14.5%             14.0%   14.3% 
revenues 
Cost of devices and other goods sold5                                2,402    12,398   416%     3,365   22,334  n/m 
Cost of devices and other goods sold as a % of revenues             5.8%     15.2%             3.8%    14.5% 
Other cost of revenues                                               3,707    11,303   205%     6,869   19,806  188% 
Other cost of revenues as a % of revenues                           9.0%     13.9%             7.8%    12.8% 
Total cost of revenues                                               15,912   41,774   163%     32,147  75,816  136% 
Total cost of revenues as a % of revenues                           38.4%    51.3%             36.4%   49.1%

(5) Including sales of 1P products on Yandex.Market marketplace.

TAC grew 50% in Q2 2021 compared with Q2 2020 and represented 7.7% of total revenues, down 238 basis points compared with Q2 2020. The year-on-year dynamic of TAC as a share of revenue was primarily driven by a decrease of the share of advertising revenues as a percentage of total revenues as well as the optimization of TAC rates.

Costs related to the Taxi segment, excluding sales of goods increased 110% compared with Q2 2020. The growth was mainly a result of the increase in our corporate Taxi offering, delivery costs attributed to Yandex.Lavka, Logistics and Yandex.Eats and leasing costs attributed to Yandex.Drive, our car-sharing business. We are the principal in transactions with our Taxi corporate clients; therefore, we recognize both revenues and cost of revenues on a gross basis. B2B revenue amounted to 23% of ride-hailing revenues in Q2 2021 (up from 21% in Q1 2021) and grew 94% compared to Q2 2020.

Costs related to devices and other goods sold increased 416% compared with Q2 2020, which was mainly due to the consolidation of Yandex.Market. On a like-for-like basis (including cost of revenues related to Yandex.Market in both Q2 2021 and Q2 2020) costs related to devices and other goods sold increased 100% on the back of increased 1P sales of Yandex.Market as well as strong growth of Yandex.Lavka and our Devices business.

Other cost of revenues in Q2 2021 increased 205% compared with Q2 2020, primarily driven by the consolidation of Yandex.Market. Other costs of revenues include ?osts of Yandex.Market sales, excluding sales of goods, Media Services subscriptions, Zen content and other services. On a like-for-like basis (including cost of revenues related to Yandex.Market in both Q2 2021 and Q2 2020) other costs of revenues were up 75%, principally reflecting increased Yandex.Market sales, excluding sales of goods, as well as increased investments in content within Media Services and Zen.

Operating Expenses 


 
In RUB millions                   Three months ended June 30,   Six months ended June 30, 
 
                                  2020       2021       Change  2020     2021     Change 
Product development                8,970      11,234    25%      16,898   22,243  32% 
As a % of revenues                21.7%      13.8%              19.1%    14.3% 
Sales, general and administrative  12,357     27,476    122%     25,998   50,571  95% 
As a % of revenues                29.8%      33.8%              29.4%    32.7% 
Depreciation and amortization      4,052      5,641     39%      8,062    10,898  35% 
As a % of revenues                9.8%       6.9%               9.1%     7.1% 
Total operating expenses           25,379     44,351    75%      50,958   83,712  64% 
As a % of revenues                61.3%      54.5%              57.6%    54.2%

Total operating expenses increased 75% in Q2 2021 compared with Q2 2020. On a like-for-like basis (including Yandex.Market in both Q2 2021 and Q2 2020) total operating expenses increased 58% in Q2 2021 mainly due to an increase in advertising and marketing activities, which supported revenue growth of Search and Portal, Taxi, Media Services and GMV growth acceleration of Yandex.Market. Q2 2021 dynamics was also affected by the low operating costs base in Q2 2020 due to COVID-related cost optimization measures that were undertaken in Q2 2020. 


 
In RUB millions                             Three months ended June 30,   Six months ended June 30, 
 
                                            2020      2021      Change    2020    2021      Change 
SBC expense included in cost of revenues     138       126      -9%        214     250      17% 
SBC expense included in product development  2,598     2,592    0%         4,280   6,034    41% 
SBC expense included in SG&A                 1,473     2,144    46%        2,466   4,382    78% 
Total SBC expense                            4,209     4,862    16%        6,960   10,666   53% 
As a % of revenues                          10.2%     6.0%                7.9%    6.9%

Total SBC expense increased 16% in Q2 2021 compared with Q2 2020. The growth primarily reflects new equity-based grants made in 2020-2021 as well as the increased share price of Yandex N.V. and material appreciation of the U.S. dollar against the ruble, largely offset by the high base effect (related to the replacement of cash bonuses by equity compensation for some senior employees in Q2 2020, in the course of the Company's COVID-19 related cost optimization initiatives).

Income/(loss) from operations 


 
In RUB millions               Three months ended June 30,  Six months ended June 30, 
                              2020  2021         Change    2020    2021       Change 
Income/(loss) from operations  116   (4,723)     n/m        5,305   (4,990)   n/m

Loss from operations amounted to RUB 4.7 billion in Q2 2021 compared to income from operations of RUB 0.1 billion in Q2 2020. Including Yandex.Market in both periods, loss from operations in Q2 2020 was RUB 2.6 billion. The decrease reflects the changes in segment mix amid the continuing investments in our rapidly growing new businesses (primarily Yandex.Market, FoodTech and Media Services).

Segment financial results

Search & Portal

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