Sberbank, Yandex and VK may replace the App Store and Google Play

The Government of the Russian Federation chooses an import substitute for the App Store and Google Play. Earlier, ANO “Digital Platforms” announced the NashStore. Now its competitors can become “Sber”, “Yandex” and VK.

This was reported by Kommersant with reference to a source familiar with the situation. Of the three named companies, only VK commented on the information.

VK has announced that it is preparing its own marketplace for mobile app developers. Its release is scheduled for May.

“We are interested in Russian developers creating high–quality applications that will be relevant for millions of users,” the company’s representatives said.

At the same time, VK did not specify on the basis of which platform the store is being developed.

As for Sber and Yandex, information about their stores has not yet been confirmed. According to Kommersant’s sources, Sber is developing a marketplace based on a corporate app store, and Yandex is considering restarting Yandex.Store. This platform was closed in 2020.

The Russian government has announced that an alternative store will be developed by the summer based on Android. At the same time, it refused to comment on who exactly will become the developer. Earlier, the Ministry of Finance decided to create a marketplace in which there will be applications only from the registry of Russian software.

Regarding analogues based on iOS – according to experts, difficulties may arise. You can do this only by the same methods that were used to create application catalogs for hacked iPhones. However, with each new version of iOS, Apple is improving the protection system more and more.

The domestic version of the stores is being developed in case of complete blocking of downloading applications from the App Store and Google Play. Previously, these services disabled payments for Russian users.