Russians Plan to Launch Alternative to Google Play on Victory Day

The logo of Google Play is displayed at Tokyo Game Show 2019 in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan, September 12, 2019. (Reuters)
The logo of Google Play is displayed at Tokyo Game Show 2019 in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan, September 12, 2019. (Reuters)
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Russians Plan to Launch Alternative to Google Play on Victory Day

The logo of Google Play is displayed at Tokyo Game Show 2019 in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan, September 12, 2019. (Reuters)
The logo of Google Play is displayed at Tokyo Game Show 2019 in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan, September 12, 2019. (Reuters)

Russian tech developers are building an alternative to Alphabet Inc's Google Play store and plan to launch it on May 9, a national holiday in Russia that celebrates victory in World War Two, the organization behind the initiative said on Tuesday.

YouTube and Google Play this month suspended all payment-based services in Russia, including subscriptions, as Western sanctions over Russia's actions in Ukraine started to pose banking challenges in the country.

"Unfortunately, Russians can no longer normally use Google Play to buy apps and developers have lost their source of income," said Vladimir Zykov, director of projects at Digital Platforms, an organization focused on digital development.

"This is why we have created a Russian app shop, NashStore," Zykov said in a statement.

NashStore, which translates into English as "OurStore", will serve Android mobile devices and should ultimately be compatible with Russian Mir bank cards, the statement said.

Russia traditionally holds a patriotic display of raw military power on May 9 with a parade that passes through Moscow's Red Square commemorating the anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.



WhatsApp to Start Showing Ads to Users in Some Parts of the Messaging App

A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)
A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)
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WhatsApp to Start Showing Ads to Users in Some Parts of the Messaging App

A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)
A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP)

WhatsApp said Monday that users will start seeing ads in some parts of the app, as owner Meta Platforms moves to cultivate a new revenue stream by tapping the billions of people that use the messaging service.

Advertisements will be shown only in the app's Updates tab, which is used by as many as 1.5 billion people each day. However, they won't appear where personal chats are located, developers said.

"The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn’t changing, and personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads," WhatsApp said in a blog post.

It’s a big change for the company, whose founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton vowed to keep the platform free of ads when they created it in 2009.

Facebook purchased WhatsApp in 2014 and the pair left a few years later. Parent company Meta has long been trying to generate revenue from WhatsApp.

WhatsApp said ads will be targeted to users based on information like the user's age, the country or city where they're located, the language they're using, the channels they're following in the app, and how they're interacting with the ads they see.

WhatsApp said it won't use personal messages, calls and groups that a user is a member of to target ads to the user.

It's one of three advertising features that WhatsApp unveiled on Monday as it tries to monetize the app's user base. Channels will also be able to charge users a monthly fee for subscriptions so they can get exclusive updates. And business owners will be able to pay to promote their channel's visibility to new users.