Beijing, October 28, 2026 — Recently, the Interactive Advertising Summit and the Interactive Creativity & Media Marketing Awards Ceremony of the 2026 China International Advertising Festival were held at the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center in Beijing. Yandex Ads, a leading global digital advertising platform, partnered with Efun Network to create a benchmark case for Chinese games expanding into Russia, winning two prestigious awards: the Gold Award in the "Cross-Channel Integration" category of the Media Marketing unit, and the Silver Award in the "Global Marketing" category of the Interactive Creativity unit. Yuan Yaping, Head of Channel for Greater China at Yandex Ads, attended the ceremony to accept the awards and was invited to participate in the overseas expansion salon themed "Transcending Traffic Dividends, Rooting in Local Markets — The Operational Leap of Brand Globalization," exploring new paths for growth abroad with industry peers.
Yuan Yaping, Head of Channel for Greater China at Yandex Ads
Yuan Yaping (far left) accepts the award on behalf of Yandex Ads
Double Awards Crown, 240% ROAS Validates "Ecosystem-Level" Integration Strength
The Russian-speaking region is becoming a core value高地 for the globalization of Chinese mobile games. According to Yandex Ads' "2026 Report on Growth and User Value in the Russian Mobile Game Market," Russia saw 2.04 billion mobile game downloads in 2025, ranking seventh globally; players spent an average of 11.5 hours per month playing, ranking fifth worldwide. In the first half of 2026, spending by Chinese companies on game promotions via the Yandex Ads platform increased by 150% year-on-year. However, many overseas expansion teams still struggle with unfamiliar local traffic rules,粗放 promotion strategies, and broken payment and monetization chains, making it difficult to achieve long-term profitability.
This award-winning case focuses on the breakthrough battle of Efun Network's two domestic fantasy RPG games, "Athena: Blood Twins" and "Glory of Legion," in the Russian market. Facing the dual challenges of fragmented internet touchpoints and rising customer acquisition costs in the Russian-speaking region, Yandex Ads leveraged its one-stop digital advertising ecosystem, Yandex Direct, which covers over 120 million monthly active users across Russia, helping Efun Network integrate media matrices including search, content platforms, and the Yandex Ad Network.
Over the 12-month promotion period, the project not only achieved an upgrade from user acquisition to full lifecycle operations but also delivered impressive results: 135,000 cumulative new installs, a stable cost per acquisition (CPA) of $2.6, and a return on ad spend (ROAS) as high as 240%. This "full-domain coverage, layered reach, data integration" cross-channel strategy successfully validated the synergistic value of branding and performance for Chinese games in overseas markets.
The Path to Breaking Through Overseas: See Clearly, Spend Wisely, Move Steadily
Yuan Yaping (second from left) shares insights on Chinese enterprises going global
During the overseas expansion salon that day, Yuan Yaping pointed out a common pain point for brands going global: "Many brands don't fail because of their products, but because of their entry strategy. That is, wrong timing, wrong resource structure, entering a market they don't understand at all."
Facing an unfamiliar market environment, she combined Yandex's ecological experience serving over 97% of Russian internet users to provide a methodology for breaking through: "See Clearly, Spend Wisely, Move Steadily." The first step is to "See Clearly," meaning to thoroughly understand the authenticity of market demand, competition density, and the maturity of payment and logistics before entry, without being misled by "blue ocean" narratives; the second step is to "Spend Wisely," where she strongly recommends "small steps, fast runs, and phased betting," verifying demand and running models before scaling up massively. Finally, "Move Steady" involves cooperating with local ecosystem partners to reduce hidden costs such as compliance and language barriers.
Yuan Yaping stated: "Through infrastructure services such as no-registration local entities, Chinese-language interfaces and team support, AI-optimized promotions, and Ruble settlement, Yandex Ads has significantly lowered the trial-and-error threshold for Chinese brands entering the Russian-speaking region. In the future, Yandex Ads will continue to deepen its localization ecosystem and AI marketing technologies, serving as a long-term strategic partner for Chinese enterprises to transcend traffic dividends and root themselves in the Russian-speaking market, helping more Chinese brands achieve high-quality, sustainable growth in the global market."