It was first reported by Search Engine Journal back in March 2019 that Ahrefs are working on search engine.
AIN Capital also confirmed that they had invested $40 million into the project.
The wait is finally over after TechCrunch announced that the project have been created with over $60 million invested into the new search, which is called Yep.
You can read more Yep: A Search Engine For Creators
Yep’s About Page describes in more detail its origins and purpose, including the SEO industry shortcomings that they hope to correct:
“We built Yep from the ground up so that we can give 90% of ad revenue to content creators.
We’ve all gotten used to a search model that’s arguably unfair. A model where paywalls and affiliate links have insidiously become part of the search experience.
Yep is our answer to this.
Our mission is to go back to the basics: supporting good content.
We offer an unbiased, private search experience that rewards and compensates the makers behind the content. To do this, we use a 90/10 profit share business model where we pay 90% of advertising profits directly to these makers.
Simply put, when you use Yep, you’re directly putting money in the pockets of your favorite content creators.”