Yandex announed today that it has launched a new app store for Android at Yandex.Store. It has over 50,000 paid and free apps.

“Yandex.Store is a global product and it is already available in eight languages for users around the world,” said Alexander Zverev, Head of Yandex.Store. “We welcome app developers to publish their apps to Yandex.Store and look forward to working with device manufacturers from around the world who wish to install Yandex.Store on their devices. The global market for Android-based mobile phones is very fragmented. There are only a few major players who enjoy a meaningful share, with the remaining portion of the market distributed among hundreds of smaller companies. We are joining the game to contribute to competition that ensures freedom of choice for the end user and other members of the market.”

Payments in the store go through Yandex’s Yandex.money service, and all of the apps are verified by Kaspersky Lab.

“The Android app stores are a magnet for malware developers. The platform’s popularity and the fact that its source code is publicly available made Android a popular target for malicious attacks – 99% of all malware detected on mobile devices in 2012 were aimed at Android smartphones,” says Petr Merkulov, Director of Products and Services Development, Kaspersky Lab. “We provide comprehensive anti-virus protection for Yandex.Store by integrating our special Kaspersky Anti-Virus SDK.”

Device manufacturers can integrate Yandex’s app store into their devices and get a share of the revenues.