In a move to increase its share of the Russian e-ticketing market, Yandex, the NASDAQ-listed Russian Internet giant, has acquired the exclusive rights to the e-ticketing system called TicketSteam. The financial details of the deal, reported by business daily Kommersant, were not disclosed.

According to InterMedia news agency director Yevgeny Safronov, Yandex’s share of the e-ticketing market in Russia is now estimated at 5-10%. This move may allow Yandex to increase it by 50 to 100%.

The rights to the TicketSteam e-ticketing software developed by St Petersburg-based Ticket Best company were purchased by Yandex.Media Services. It is a fully-owned subsidiary of Yandex, which has been operating since early 2018 and is responsible for its music and ticketing business.

So far, Yandex’s event aggregator service Yandex.Afisha has only been able show the events offered by its partners. Now, with the purchase of TicketSteam, it will be able to let event organizers to fully manage their sale campaigns by offering them an opportunity to create their events and sell tickets on their own.

According to Yandex, in 2018, TicketSteam sold more than 2.5 million e-tickets to the tune of 3.5 billion rubles (about $54 million at the current exchange rate.)

As reported previously by East-West Digital News, Yandex’s main rival Mail.Ru Group earlier in June invested in Moscow-based Ticketing Platform, developed by ticketing aggregator TIWO. In 2018, TCS Group Holding, a major provider of online retail financial services in Russia known as Tinkoff, acquired a stake in leading ticket sales company Kassir.ru.