Google has suspended all payment systems within the Play Store, its application store, in Russia, Reuters confirms. Likewise, content creators who use YouTube to broadcast their videos will find themselves involved in another problem, since they will no longer receive income from their local audience. Previously, those from Mountain View had already paused the ad monetization system with which they earn money.
These new suspensions come as a result of the sanctions that the West has imposed on Russian banks. This, in turn, is due to the invasion that the Slavic country is currently carrying out on Ukrainian territory. Through a statement, Google has confirmed that the payment system “ will be suspended in the coming days“; and covers all kinds of activities within your store.
That yes, the users of the region will be able to do with the rest of free applications of the store; so it is not a total suspension. However, all those services that require payments through the Play Store or any other Google service will be canceled until further notice.
Due to the interruption of the payment system, we will pause the Google Play billing system for users in Russia in the coming days. This means that users will not be able to purchase apps and games; make subscription payments or make in-app purchases of digital goods through Google Play in Russia. Free apps will continue to be available on the Play Store.
Google In a similar vein, YouTube is facing a similar fate. A spokesperson for the platform has confirmed the suspension of the payment systems. Therefore, services such as YouTube Premium, channel memberships, Super Chat and marketing will no longer be available to Russian users. Likewise, from TechCrunch they report that the suspensions in the payments of this service took effect on March 10 at 00:00 Moscow time.
All is not lost for the creators of Russian content on YouTube
Credit: Unsplash As reported by the YouTube spokesperson, Russian content creators will be able to continue to earn income with their videos. How? They comment that “with ads and other monetization products that are shown to users in countries outside of Russia.” In this way, it is clear that the suspension only affects Russian users and consumers; a demographic that will not be able to continue contributing to the economy of their favorite local youtubers.
“We have recently paused all Google and YouTube ads in Russia. As a follow-up, we are now extending this pause to all of our monetization features, including YouTube Premium, Channel Memberships, Super Chat, and Merchandise, for viewers in Russia. “
Youtube This measure is quite positive, given that content creators located in Russia have no party in the war movements of the government of that country. In this way, although they will not be able to obtain payments from their Russian consumers, they will still have the doors open to the rest of the world to continue obtaining their profits. Unfortunately, not everyone will have an international audience, and they will be the ones most affected by this.
Over the last few weeks, other technology giants have joined the sanctions against acts of Russian interference in Ukraine. Companies like Apple, Airbnb, Microsoft and many more have decided to stop all their sales of products and services in the region; thus joining the international protests against the invasion.
Likewise, other platforms have been tightening their measures against Russian media disinformation. The European Union itself has vetoed certain media outlets such as RT or Sputnik, and Reddit, Twitter, Spotify and many others have joined it.
