Russia to Mandate Preinstallation of Russian Search Engines on Smartphones
The Ministry of Digital Development of Russia plans to expand the requirements of the law on preinstalling Russian software on smartphones. The new initiative will require manufacturers to set a domestic search engine as the default in the preloaded browser. According to market participants, Yandex is considered the main beneficiary of this initiative, as reported by Kommersant.
According to a source cited by the publication, the initiative will obligate smartphone and tablet manufacturers to ensure that domestic search engines are used by default in preinstalled browsers. The Russian government will determine the procedure for selecting the domestic search engine.
This new requirement will apply to manufacturers of smartphones and tablets, who will be required to set a Russian search engine as the default in the browser that comes preloaded on the device. Sources explain that this change in the law on preinstalled software is necessary to level the playing field between Russian and foreign companies, with Yandex being the main focus of government support.
Karen Kazaryan, an analyst at the Russian Association for Electronic Communications, noted that if the authorities require Yandex search to be set by default, Google’s revenue from this segment will decrease, and the company will have to change its strategy in the Russian market: “To compensate for lost search revenue, it may, for example, reconsider its agreements with device manufacturers.”
Yandex’s press service told Sostav, “We have not seen the decree and do not know what implementation option it proposes. At the same time, we believe that everyone should have the freedom to choose. Only users should decide which services suit them best.”
“In our view, the most optimal solution would be a choice window, where the user can select which search engine they want to use. This could make the market more competitive, improve search quality, and enhance the user experience, regardless of which search engine they prefer,” the company suggested.
According to the law on preinstalled software, starting April 1, manufacturers will be required to install 16 types of software on devices, including mobile apps from Kaspersky Lab, Mail.ru Group, Yandex, New Cloud Technologies, Gosuslugi, and the Mir payment system. The State Duma is currently preparing for the third reading of a bill that will introduce fines of up to 200,000 rubles for selling devices without preinstalled Russian software starting July 1, 2021.
Under the current version of the law, mobile device manufacturers are required to mention domestic search services in the user choice window during device activation, but the user can skip installing the search engine. On Android devices, American company Google offers a choice of search engines in the Chrome browser: Yandex, Google, and Mail.ru. This setting was introduced for six years and nine months in August 2017 as part of agreements with Yandex and the Federal Antimonopoly Service. Users of iOS devices can also choose the default search engine in their browsers.