Russia Builds Its Alternative To The Google Play Store

According to Androidauthority (via Reuters), a group of Russian developers started building an alternative to Google Play Store to bypass sanctions.

So far, Google has suspended Play Store and YouTube payments in Russia. The new sanctions mean that Russian developers and content creators can’t get payments by Google. However, a native platform similar to Play Store might solve the problem for both Russian developers and Android users.

As per the Reuters resorts, the Russian alternative to Play Store bears the name NashStore (‘OurStore’ in English). Also, it works with Russia’s Mir card payment system.

Vladimir Zykov, a representative of the Digital Platforms organization, said that the reason why they built such a platform is the prohibition of Russian users and developers from using Play Store services.

The day that NashStore will launch is also interesting. The developer’s group aims to reveal the NashStore on Russia’s Victory Day on May 9. On this day, Russians celebrate the country’s victory in World War II.

Russia wants to ditch Google services

This is not the first time that Russia has tried to build a native version of popular Western services. The country’s effort to build an alternative to Google led to the creation of Yandex, which offers similar services to Google.

Of course, the amount of indexed pages on Yandex and the quality of its services are far behind Google. Yandex Store also tries to be a local Android app store for Russian citizens. The VKontakte (VK) is also one of Russia’s largest social media platforms, which is a native version of Twitter and Facebook.

As a result of the invasion of Ukraine, many companies left the Russian market, and they are unlikely to come back. The list of departed companies is getting longer every day.

What Russia tries to do with the alternative version of Google Play was done many years ago by Iranian developers. At that time, Google imposed a similar sanction on Iranian developers and prevented them from getting paid. A group of developers in Iran built an alternative called Cafe Bazaar, which was exactly the native version of Play Store. It also worked with Iran’s own payment systems. Russian developers are now following the same path.