Seznam.cz

History

Founded by Ivo Lukačovič in 1996, Seznam began as the first internet yellow pages and search engine in the Czech Republic. Ivo started his business with 50,000 CZK he had saved up. In 1998, Seznam added email to its portfolio, with email accounts running on the @seznam.cz domain. Since then, more brands and services have come on-line. Since 2001, Seznam has included financial, social and political news, TV programs, weather forecasts, dictionaries, maps and community services.

In 2000, Spray International, a Swedish web portal company, invested in Seznam. At that time Seznam became a joint stock company. Until 2000, Ivo Lukačovič was self-employed and Seznam was his own sole business. With the investment, it is estimated that Spray International acquired around 30% share of Seznam. Exact numbers are not known, as Lukačovič and Seznam officials have never released any details about the transaction. What has been confirmed, though, is that Ivo Lukačovič retained at least 70% of Seznam stock after the investment.

Spray acquired a stake in Seznam with the intention of making an IPO; however, Spray never reached that goal. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Spray abandoned the idea. There are rumors about Spray defaulting on its obligations to Ivo Lukačovič by not making an IPO. In 2003, Ivo Lukačovič increased the base capital of Seznam without Spray and became 70% owner of Seznam. Since 2003, Ivo Lukačovič has remained the controlling shareholder of Seznam.

Until 2003, Seznam had been using a fulltext engine from the Czech company Jyxo; however, in 2005, Seznam replaced that search engine with its own technology. Also in 2005, Seznam acquired the Czech firm ATC which was, among other ventures, running the email server Email.cz. Email services Email.cz and Seznam.cz have now merged.

In 2006, Seznam moved its headquarters from Prague Košíře to a more prominent location in the Prague Anděl. That year, Ivo Lukačovič gave up the day-to-day business direction of Seznam, and Pavel Zima became CEO. In the Fall of 2006, Seznam acquired all email users from another web portal, "Czech On Line", with the domain @post.cz.

Seznam bought 50% of Global Inspiration, a Czech company running a video portal Stream.cz, similar to the global YouTube in 2007. Lycos Europe (a subsequent incarnation of Spray International) sold its 30% share in Seznam to Tiger Holding and Miura International. Lycos received more than 1.7 billion CZK from this transaction. As of 2015, Miura International S.a.r.l. had 5,6% of shares, Tiger holding four S.a.r.l. had 24,4% of shares and Helifreak limited had 70% of shares.

In 2008, the Czech media reported on alleged meetings between Seznam and Goldman Sachs representatives to find a buyer for Seznam. Ivo Lukačovič and Seznam representatives denied this. Such speculation ended with the start of the 2008 financial crisis.

The EU believes Google overtook Seznam.cz around 2011 in the Czech Republic. According to the data from ad marketing agency eVisions, Seznam still held a majority share of the Czech search market at the start of 2014, but that Google pulled ahead in the second half of that year. Google's share of search on the Czech internet at 74% as of the end of 2018, while Seznam's share at 26%.

Since 2016, Seznam.cz is operating its own internet news Seznam Zprávy. Since 2018, it is broadcasting its own television Televize Seznam.

In August 2022, Seznam.cz search engine adopted the IndexNow protocol for website owners to "instantly notify search engines of the latest content changes on their website".

Seznam services

Assessment

Seznam uses its own ranking scale for web pages, called S-Rank. It is a similar to PageRank with a range from 0 to 10.

Seznam uses click identifier sznclid.

References

References

1. (June 2015). "Commented financial statements of Seznam.cz, a.s. for year 2014, on Seznam.cz corporate website".
2. Annual report of Seznam.cz for calendar year 2018, page 3, freely available at or.justice.cz
3. [http://eng.kurzy.cz/netmonitor/seznam-cz Netmonitor Seznam.cz] Results of Netmonitor web analytics project at kurzy.cz
4. "Standing Between Google and World Domination". marketingpilgrim.com.
5. ČTK. (7 December 2012). "Seznam, najdu tam, co neznám: Ivo Lukačovič se vrací do firmy a s ním i starý slogan".
6. Nováček, Libor. "Lycos loni odkoupil pětinu Seznamu".
7. Zeman, Mirek. "Ivo Lukačovič: Seznam dělají neznámí lidé".
8. Ambrož, Jan. "Proč Seznam koupil Email.cz?".
9. Kálal, Jan. "Výměna uživatelů: Seznam získal Post.cz, Volný jeho dial-up".
10. Nováček, Libor. "Kdo vlastně koupil podíl v Seznamu?".
11. (17 September 2015). "General meeting of stakeholders".
12. ČTK. (2008-04-02). "Kdo koupí internetový portál Seznam.cz?".
13. Králíček, Tomáš. (2008-12-16). "Goldman Sachs spadla do ztráty. Poprvé od vstupu na burzu".
14. "Antitrust: Commission fines Google €2.42 billion for abusing dominance as search engine by giving illegal advantage to own comparison shopping service - Factsheet". European Commission.
15. "Infographics: The search engines Google and Seznam on the Czech Internet #2019". eVisions.
16. (2018-01-10). "Seznam.cz spouští vlastní televizi. Vysílat bude od pátku v multiplexu ČRa".
17. "Protokol IndexNow".
18. "Home {{!}} IndexNow.org".
19. "Sledovací URL".