Estonia is the second European Union member state where Yandex starts offering its taxi service. Yandex Taxi launched in Latvia on March 15 this year, and in the first month of its operation 50,000 people used the service in the capital city of Riga.

Yandex Taxi is active in 300 cities across ten countries worldwide.

"Our service takes into considertion the traffic situation in route planning, and will search for a new order for the driver in the area where they are taking the passenger. Technologies like this reduce the costs of a trip: the drivers will earn more and the users will pay less," Aram Sargsyan, director for international strategy at Yandex Taxi, said.

The company's service comes in two different price classes: comfort and economy. The different tariffs are connected to vehicle category and range.

In its economy class, the starting fee will not exceed €1, which also includes 0.5 kilometers and five minutes of waiting time. The maximum fare per kilometer is €0.55.

Between May 1 and May 20 Yandex Taxi is offering a discount of 50 percent, but no more than €3.5 euros per ride, to all users in Tallinn paying by card.

Yandex Taxi's app is available in Estonian for both Android and iOS. Overall, the Yandex Taxi application has been translated into 15 languages.

Unlike other similar services, Yandex Taxi informs the user about the price of the ride immediately after the address of the place of departure and the address of the destination have been entered. The fare will not change either if the ride takes longer than originally estimated.

Last year Yandex and Uber announced the creation of a joint venture in Russia and some other formerly Soviet states, with Uber investing €225 million dollars and Yandex €100 million.