Zen
Type of site
Recommendation system
Available inRussian languages
Founded2015
OwnerVK
Created byYandex
Key peopleAnton Frolov (CEO)
Rinat Nizamov (EIC)
Vitaly Grigorash (CPO)
URLdzen.ru
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
Users59 million per month[1]
Current statusActive

Zen (Russian: Дзéн) is a personal recommendations service created by Yandex that uses machine learning technology.[2][3][4][5]

In September 2022, Yandex sold the service to VK.[6]

Zen creates a feed of content that automatically adjusts to the interests of a user.[7] The selection of content is based on the analysis of browsing history, user-specified preferences, location, time of day and other factors.[8][9]

The average monthly site traffic is around 59 million people.[1]

Technology

Zen is an example of the implementation of a specialized artificial intelligence technology.[10][11][12]

To analyze the interests and preferences of users, Yandex used information about sites that have been visited, as well as user-specified interests.[13]

The system analyzes the user's favorite sites and other behaviors with the aim of creating a unique model of the user's preferences.[14] With an increasing amount of data about the user, the system can offer the user more relevant and topical content,[14] including content from sources unfamiliar to the user.[15] Zen adapts to the changing interests of the user.[16] For example, if a user begins to read about architecture, content on this subject will appear in their content feed more often.[17][18]

Prediction of user interest by using collaborative filtering[9]

Zen belong to the “Discovery” technology category (services and apps that use artificial intelligence to adapt to a user).[19][20][21]

The technology that underlies Zen was adapted by Yandex and CERN for use in the Large Hadron Collider. It is used to provide in-depth analysis of the results of physics experiments taking place at the LHС.[22][23]

Media platform

In 2017, Yandex announced the launch of a platform that allows companies and independent authors to publish media content (articles, photos, videos) directly to Zen.[24] The platform also allows popular authors to earn money by using micropayment channels and ads.[24][25][26]

In August 2021, the "Videos" section was launched in Zen. It contains videos up to 1 minute long created by Zen bloggers.[27]

In 2021, the company paid out over 2 billion rubles to authors of publications.[28]

Prior to the launch of the platform, Zen feeds consisted only of publications selected from publicly available sources.[29]

After buying Zen, VK began to implement changes. In January 2023, the limit on uploaded videos was increased from 10 GB to 30 GB.[30] In February 2023, users got an opportunity to withdraw money through the VK Pay service.[31]

Monetization

The opportunity for monetization came when, in 2017, Zen became a platform for creating content, not just distributing it.[32] Zen-registered bloggers could get paid for their posts if they collected a minimum of 7,000 reads in a week.

In 2019, Zen paid more than 1 billion rubles to authors for placing advertisements in articles.[33]

In May 2020, bloggers on the platform had the opportunity to place widgets with goods from Yandex Market: at that time, such social commerce was implemented only in articles.[34] In November 2020, the platform signed an agreement with marketplace "Joom" with similar conditions for adding widgets, and in April 2021, after successful testing, placement of Auto.ru widgets became available to all authors of channels with connected monetization. The general principle of getting money from such widgets is that bloggers get paid for clicking from the widgets posted.

In March 2021, widgets began appearing not only directly in bloggers' content, but also on article cards in the feed, as well as under the articles themselves.[35]

At the first stage of the launch of the short video feed Yandex allocated 50 million rubles to reward bloggers.

History

In 1997, Yandex began research into natural language processing, machine learning and recommendation systems.[36] In 2009, the proprietary machine learning algorithm MatrixNet was developed by Yandex, becoming one of the key components that Zen functions on.[9] The first Yandex service to introduce the use of recommendation technology was Yandex.Music, which was launched in September 2014.[37] This technology was then implemented in Yandex.Market and Yandex.Radio.[37]

In June 2015, a beta version of Zen became available.[37][38][39] At first, the Zen content feed showed only content from the media, and the service was only available to the 5% of users of Yandex Browser on Android that had registered a Yandex account.[37] Prior to this, Zen was available in an experimental form on the webpage zen.yandex.ru.[9][40]

In the following months, other types of content were added to Zen, such as image galleries, articles, blogs, forums, videos from YouTube, etc.[41][9][42]

In 2017, Zen launched Narratives, a special content format for mobile devices. Narrative is a set of slides with texts, photos, videos and GIFs. In January 2018, the format became available to Zen authors.[43]

In August 2022, VK announced the purchase of Zen and Zen News. The deal was closed on September 12, 2022.[44]

Management

The head of the Zen service is Anton Frolov.[45]

Finances

The platform has ad-based business model. In September 2017, Zen's revenue amounted to 200 million rubles.[46] In 2020, the planned revenue amounted to 13.1 billion rubles. According to the results of the fourth quarter of 2021, the planned revenue amounted to 18.9 billion rubles.[47]

Competitors

After the release of Zen, several major companies also announced personal recommendation services. In May 2016, Mail.Ru Group presented a similar project called Likemore, which offers users content from VK (VKontakte) social media groups.[48][49] In August 2016, Google launched a test version of a similar service Google Discover that recommends news articles.[48][50][51] Apple and Facebook have also launched news services with similar functionality.[52] In 2019, VK launched a similar service named "Pulse". It is assumed that VK will merge Pulse and purchased Zen.[53][54]

References

  1. 1 2 "«Яндекс.Дзен» — это 60 млн пользователей, которые готовы у вас покупать. Показываю пользу для бизнеса в цифрах" (in Russian). VC. 2022-03-16. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  2. ↑ "Personal recommendations Zen earned in Yandex.Browser on iPad - ActualApple.com". actualapple.com. Archived from the original on 2017-02-23. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  3. ↑ "Share Market Updates - Stock Trading News, Stock Newsletter, Stock Photos". sharemarketupdates.com. Archived from the original on 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  4. ↑ Symington, Steve (2 August 2016). "Yandex Gains Share on Android in Another Decent Quarter".
  5. ↑ Barton, James (12 October 2016). "Emerging markets telecom news and analysis - Developing Telecoms". Developing Telecoms.
  6. ↑ "Yandex's sale of News and Zen to VK completes". Techcrunch. 2022-09-12. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  7. ↑ ""Яндекс" запустил новостной агрегатор "Дзен"". www.dp.ru.
  8. ↑ "Яндекс.Дзен".
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Будущее браузеров и искусственный интеллект. Дзен в Яндекс.Браузере - PCNEWS.RU". pcnews.ru.
  10. ↑ "Искусственный интеллект в "Яндекс.Браузере" поможет осуществлять поиск - ГосИндекс". gosindex.ru.
  11. ↑ ""Яндекс" выпустил браузер с рекомендательным сервисом "Дзен"". ftimes.ru. Archived from the original on 2017-04-08. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  12. ↑ "Yandex Zen запустил новый формат для публикаций новостей". teleconom.ru. 2 September 2021.
  13. ↑ "Будущее браузеров и искусственный интеллект. Дзен в Яндекс.Браузере".
  14. 1 2 "Как включить Яндекс Дзен на компьютере в браузере". sdelaicomp.ru. 13 September 2016.
  15. ↑ AppCompass (16 August 2016). "Яндекс тестирует ленту Дзен в бета-версии своего браузера для iPad". Archived from the original on 26 March 2017. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  16. ↑ "Искусственный интеллект в России. Достижения и основные направления развития - iot.ru Новости Интернета вещей". iot.ru.
  17. ↑ Rbc.ua. ""Яндекс" выпустил браузер с персональной лентой рекомендаций".
  18. ↑ ""Яндекс" внедрил в свой браузер искусственный интеллект. Новости - Россия. Metro". www.metronews.ru. 8 June 2016.
  19. ↑ Editorial, Reuters. "${Instrument_CompanyName} ${Instrument_Ric} Company Profile Reuters.com". U.S. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  20. ↑ "The Press Telegraph". presstelegraph.com. Archived from the original on 2016-10-13. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  21. ↑ "The Press Telegraph". presstelegraph.com. Archived from the original on 2016-10-02. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  22. ↑ "CERN boosts its search for antimatter with Yandex's MatrixNet search engine tech - ExtremeTech". 1 February 2013.
  23. ↑ "Yandex bakes AI into smartphones to start OTT fightback".
  24. 1 2 ""Яндекс" запустил платформу для создания контента независимыми авторами". 30 May 2017.
  25. ↑ ""Яндекс" раздаст $1 млн лучшим авторам контента на новой платформе "Яндекс.Дзена" - Rusbase".
  26. ↑ ""Яндекс" запустил блог-платформу для издателей и брендов".
  27. ↑ "«Яндекс» запустил в «Дзене» аналог TikTok — ленту с короткими видео" (in Russian). VC. 2021-08-05. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  28. ↑ "«Яндекс.Дзен» выплатил авторам постов больше 2 млрд рублей в 2021 году" (in Russian). VC. 2021-12-27. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  29. ↑ ""Яндекс.Дзен" превратили в платформу для создания контента с возможностью монетизации".
  30. ↑ "В Дзене увеличен лимит на загружаемые видео" (in Russian). VC. 2023-12-31. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  31. ↑ "Дзен позволил авторам выводить доход от монетизации через VK Pay" (in Russian). VC. 2023-02-02. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  32. ↑ "«Яндекс» запустил платформу для создания контента независимыми авторами". Коммерсантъ (in Russian). 2017-05-30. Archived from the original on 2018-09-06. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  33. ↑ "Яндекс.Дзен запустил рекламу в видео и упростил правила монетизации". Код Дурова. 2020-04-24. Archived from the original on 2021-09-09. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  34. ↑ "«Яндекс.Дзен» развивает социальную коммерцию". telecomdaily.ru. Archived from the original on 2021-09-09. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  35. ↑ "Яндекс.Дзен добавит товарные виджеты в ленту и под статьи". SeoNews (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2021-09-09. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  36. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid. "Yandex woos smartphone makers with AI, browser and launcher partnership programs".
  37. 1 2 3 4 Panphilov, Konstantin (9 June 2015). ""Яндекс" запустил тестовую версию рекомендательного сервиса для читателей СМИ". Archived from the original on 15 February 2017. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  38. ↑ "В Google Chrome появятся рекомендации". webmasters.ru.
  39. ↑ Inc., TV Rain (10 June 2015). ""Яндекс" запустил агрегатор публикаций "Дзен"". {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  40. ↑ ""Яндекс" официально запустил "Дзен"". 8 June 2016.
  41. ↑ ""Яндекс" запустил сервис персональных рекомендаций статей "Дзен" — Meduza".
  42. ↑ "Stocks in the Spotlight: Endeavour Silver Corp. (EXK), Baker Hughes Incorporated (BHI), Yandex N.V. (YNDX) | istreetwire". istreetwire.com. Archived from the original on 2016-07-18.
  43. ↑ "Яндекс.Дзен о нарративах: мы создали микроформат с замашками лонгридов" (in Russian). Cossa. 2018-02-16. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  44. ↑ "«Яндекс» и VK обменялись активами. Главное" (in Russian). РБК. 2022-09-23. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  45. ↑ "Руководителем "Яндекс.Дзена" станет Антон Фролов" (in Russian). TASS. 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  46. ↑ "22 млн пользователей в день и потенциальные 18,9 млрд рублей выручки в год: что получит VK после покупки «Дзена»" (in Russian). VC. 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  47. ↑ "22 млн пользователей в день и потенциальные 18,9 млрд рублей выручки в год: что получит VK после покупки «Дзена»" (in Russian). RBC. 2022-03-15. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  48. 1 2 Frolov, Andrey (18 August 2016). "Google представила аналог рекомендующего статьи "Яндекс.Дзена" в мобильном браузере Chrome". vc.ru.
  49. ↑ "Business geek. Видеозвонки в WhatsApp, закрытие "Мегамозга" и кинобизнес Nintendo".
  50. ↑ "Google Now-powered New Tab Page is coming to Chrome". 17 August 2016.
  51. ↑ "Google тестирует рекомендации на вкладках в Chrome для Android".
  52. ↑ Inc., TV Rain (11 June 2015). "Apple запустит новостной сервис Apple News". {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  53. ↑ "Платформа для блогеров «Пульс» в VK стала доступна всем пользователям" (in Russian). RB. 2022-02-09. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  54. ↑ "Эксперты: VK может интегрировать "Дзен" и "Новости" в сообщества "ВКонтакте" и "Пульс"" (in Russian). TASS. 2022-06-30. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
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