Seznam Najdu Tam, Co Neznám: The Slogan vs. the Facts

“Seznam najdu tam, co neznám” is the advertising slogan of the Czech search engine Seznam.cz, meaning “I’ll find there what I don’t know.” In 2026, the promise sits awkwardly next to the facts: Google took over Czech search around 2014, Seznam’s parent holding moved to Switzerland in January 2026, and the company spent part of 2017 defending ad rules that blocked news sites from its own network.

Seznam is not a Google clone. It runs its own crawler, its own ranking system and its own data centers, and it has done so for most of the last thirty years. That is rare. According to the English Wikipedia entry on Seznam.czit was historically one of the few search engines outside the United States and China to hold a substantial position against Google in its home market. The slogan, coined in Czech, became one of the best-known lines in the country’s internet history.

Key Facts

• Seznam.cz was founded in 1996 in Prague by Ivo Lukačovič, who invested 50,000 Czech koruna from his own savings.
• Google overtook Seznam in Czech search market share around 2014, according to the Czech Wikipedia
• Seznam reported revenues of CZK 5.939 billion and a pre-tax profit of CZK 1.362 billion for 2023.
• Since January 2026, the parent company of Seznam has been Masaryk Holding, based in Zug, Switzerland, also owned by Lukačovič.
• In 2017, Sklik ad rules briefly excluded some news websites; Lukačovič publicly reversed them within days.

What Does “Seznam Najdu Tam, Co Neznám” Actually Mean?

The phrase is a Czech marketing slogan: “najdu tam, co neznám” translates as “I’ll find there what I don’t know,” and it was created to sell Seznam as the place where Czech users could discover the Czech-language internet. The word “seznam” itself simply means “list.” The company started as exactly that, a directory of websites sorted into categories, with up to 1,000 pages per category and keyword search on top.

As the Czech marketing guide JakSeDostatDoMedií explainsSeznamBot is an autonomous Czech full-text search robot developed by Seznam itself. The company later introduced its own ranking system, S-Rank, which scores websites from 0 to 10 as a measure of importance. That is a real search engine, not a skin over someone else’s results.

Why Did Seznam Lose the Search War to Google?

Google overtook Seznam in Czech search share roughly a decade ago, around 2014, after years in which Seznam had been the country’s most-used search engine. The turning point was not one mistake but a structural shift. Google’s results improved, and Seznam responded by diversifying rather than by winning search back.

The company’s own history shows the pivot. In 2005, Seznam replaced full-text technology licensed from the Czech firm Jyxo with its own solution. In the early 2010s, Google became dominant. Seznam then built a wider system: Mapy.com, formerly Mapy.cz, became one of its most important products, alongside email, advertising via Sklik, and vertical services such as Sreality.cz and Sauto.cz. It is a textbook case of a former market leader retreating into niches, a pattern familiar from our coverage of why big companies collapse

Who Owns Seznam.cz in 2026, and Why Does It Matter?

Since January 2026, the ultimate parent of Seznam.cz is Masaryk Holding, a company registered in Zug, Switzerland, whose owner is also Ivo Lukačovič. According to the Czech Wikipedia entry, media reported the change in January 2026. The operating company itself remains Czech, based at Radlická 3294/10 in Prague’s Smíchov district.

The ownership trail deserves scrutiny. In 2010, Lukačovič transferred his majority stake to Helifreak Limited, a Cypriot company he owned himself. Sixteen years later, the top of the structure sits in Switzerland. None of this is illegal. All of it means that one of the country’s largest media and technology groups is controlled through a chain of foreign entities by a single billionaire, a setup that keeps decision-making far from public view. Readers who want the broader mechanics should read our explainer on how lobbying works and why it is controversial

The reach of that control is wide. Seznam owns more than 97 percent of the publisher Borgis, holds stakes in radio stations Expres FM and Classic Praha since 2018, and operates Televize Seznam, launched in 2018. On January 1, 2022, Seznam Zprávy was spun off as a separate company with the stated goal of strengthening editorial independence. The proof of that independence will be whether it ever reports uncomfortably on its own owner.

The 2017 Censorship Episode Seznam Would Rather Forget

In 2017, Seznam’s advertising system Sklik issued new rules that explicitly barred some news websites from its Sklik Partner program, and the rules were scrapped within days after the owner intervened. According to the Czech Wikipedia entry, the rules lasted only a few days before being withdrawn.

Executive director Michal Feix explained the reversal at the time:

“Představenstvo o záměru zpřísnit pravidla reklamy v oblasti zpravodajských webů nevědělo […] Představenstvo a majitel společnosti si nepřeje, abychom se snažili určovat objektivnost a pravdivost zpravodajských webů, které jsou zařazeny do naší reklamní sítě.” (Translation: “The board did not know about the plan to tighten advertising rules for news sites […] The board and the owner of the company do not wish us to try to judge the objectivity and truthfulness of news websites included in our advertising network.”)

Michal Feix, executive director, Seznam.cz

Lukačovič was blunter. On social media, he wrote:

“Dozvěděl jsem se, že nové obchodní podmínky mohou dopadnout i na weby, které mají ‘pouze’ jiný politický názor. Tak jsem tu cenzuru zrušil.” (Translation: “I learned that the new business terms could also hit websites that have ‘only’ a different political opinion. So I cancelled this censorship.”)

Ivo Lukačovič, founder and owner, Seznam.cz

The episode matters because the exclusion was never publicly justified in detail, and because the fix depended on one man’s social media post. Companies that quietly restrict which publishers can earn money, then quietly reverse course, invite the kind of scrutiny we apply to media outlets in stories like our report on what the BBC admits and what it refuses to sayPlatforms that ban publishers from revenue programs sit in the same gray zone we track on our Banned page.

Is the Slogan “Najdu Tam, Co Neznám” Still True?

Partly. Seznam still finds what Google’s Czech results miss, especially in maps, local content and Czech-language services, but as a search engine it no longer leads the market it once dominated. The company now publishes its own language models on Hugging Face, runs data centers named Kokura in Prague’s Horní Počernice and Nagoja in Benátky nad Jizerou, and opened its first foreign branch in Bratislava in spring 2022.

The honest reading is this. “Seznam najdu tam, co neznám” was true in 1996, when the Czech internet was small enough for a directory to cover it. In 2026, the slogan survives as heritage branding for a media and services group whose search engine lost to Google, whose ownership sits in Zug, and whose most sensitive internal decision in recent memory was reversed by its owner personally. The list still exists. What it finds, and for whom, is the question worth asking.

FAQ

What does the Seznam slogan mean in English?

“Najdu tam, co neznám” means “I’ll find there what I don’t know.” It is the long-standing slogan of the Czech search engine Seznam.cz, where “seznam” means “list.”

Who founded Seznam.cz and when?

Ivo Lukačovič founded Seznam in 1996 in Prague as the first Czech internet directory and search engine, investing 50,000 Czech koruna from his own savings.

Is Seznam still bigger than Google in the Czech Republic?

No. Seznam was long the most-used Czech search engine, but Google overtook it in search share around 2014, according to the Czech Wikipedia entry.

Where is Seznam’s parent company based?

Since January 2026, the parent company is Masaryk Holding, based in Zug, Switzerland, and owned by Ivo Lukačovič. The operating company Seznam.cz, a.s. remains registered in Prague.

What was the 2017 Sklik controversy?

In 2017, Seznam’s Sklik ad system introduced rules that excluded some news websites from its partner program. The rules were withdrawn within days after Lukačovič publicly called the move censorship.

Sources: Seznam.cz – Wikipedia: Seznam.cz – Wikipedie: Seznam.cz – JakSeDostatDoMedií.czUpdated: October 23, 2026.