Context
Yandex Plus is the subscription layer that connects key products across the Yandex ecosystem, including Music, KinoPoisk, Taxi/Go, Market, Food, Lavka and others. Plus provides access to content, cashback, bonuses and partner perks, strengthening the perceived value of the ecosystem and creating continuity across services.
At the time of the initiative, Plus had ~39.2 million subscribers and generated ~1.5 billion USD in annual revenue. Despite this scale, most users perceived Plus primarily through the first service they encountered, most often Music or KinoPoisk, and did not explore the broader set of benefits and everyday usage scenarios available inside the ecosystem.
Analytics showed a direct relationship between retention and the number of services a user actively engages with. Users who interacted with only one Plus service renewed their subscription in ~31% of cases. With two services, renewal increased to ~59%. With three or more services, it reached ~84%. Subscription growth therefore depended on expanding cross-service behavior and forming a daily usage habit around the ecosystem, rather than around a single product.
Year
2021 – 2022
Client
Yandex
Challenge
The value of Plus was spread across many products, and users did not experience it as one coherent offering. Each service communicated benefits in its own way, leading to fragmented understanding and weak conversion from trial to paid subscription. As a result, many users tried the subscription, used only one service, and never experienced the cumulative value, so they didn’t continue after the trial.
Meanwhile, Plus appeared across web, mobile and TV surfaces in different services, but the visual and interaction patterns were inconsistent, preventing recognition of Plus as a unified ecosystem brand.
Approach
As Head of Design for the subscription ecosystem, I focused on ensuring that Plus was understood as one valuable and cohesive offering across all user touchpoints. The design team acted as a coordination layer across product, analytics and service teams, aligning decisions around a shared user journey.
We conducted an audit of the end-to-end subscription experience from trial activation to renewal, and reworked onboarding and in-product communications to show cross-service value early. The cancellation flow was redesigned so that users were offered meaningful alternatives such as pausing the subscription or switching to a family plan, rather than simply ending the interaction.
To encourage cross-service engagement, we introduced Plus Challenges. These were simple tasks that guided users to try different services, such as watching a film, listening to a playlist, ordering a taxi or purchasing on Market, rewarding them with Plus Points. The intent was to make exploration natural and unobtrusive.
To increase long-term motivation, we created Plus City, a gamified layer where users grew a virtual city by engaging with services across the ecosystem. This turned everyday interactions into a sense of progress and helped anchor daily use at an emotional level.
In parallel, I led the scaling of the existing Yandex Plus design system across Web, iOS, Android and TV. We unified visual and behavioral patterns and aligned component libraries, which ensured that Plus looked and felt consistent across the ecosystem and enabled faster, more coherent rollout of subscription features.
Impact
After introducing Challenges, Plus City, and reworking onboarding and retention flows, user behavior within the subscription changed. Users began moving between services more frequently and formed a habit of engaging with the ecosystem daily.
The number of paying subscribers increased ~1.5x. Trial-to-paid conversion grew from 20.6% to 45.7%. The average size of family subscriptions rose from 1.3 to 1.63. Churn decreased from 19.3% to 11.5%, correlating with a higher share of users who actively used two or more services.
Gamification and cross-service engagement mechanics scaled well: in Q4 alone, Plus City mechanics drove ~3.2M activations and ~3.1M completed tasks, reinforcing daily usage patterns.
The key outcome was a shift in perception. Plus evolved from being seen as access to one product to being understood as the core layer that connects the entire Yandex ecosystem.
