One of the largest Russian mobile vendors, Explay, refused to pre-install Yandex services on its devices. We asked the Russian search engine what such a decision might be related to, as well as how it would affect installations with Yandex.Store.
Vedomosti was the first to write today (November 24) that since September all models of Explay devices running on Android have been running without Yandex applications. They also, with reference to GfK, noted that only in the second quarter of this year, “the share of Explay in the Russian smartphone market was 5.2%.”
For a detailed comment on the ban, we turned to the press secretary of Yandex, Asa Melkumova.
What could be the reason for such a refusal?
It was the first time we became aware of a direct and complete ban on the pre-installation of any Yandex services on Android, including those that Google does not have analogues.
Our other partners, including Lenovo, Huawei, Samsung Megafon, MTS, etc., simultaneously release phones with Google Play and Yandex applications.
Explay was one of the largest partners that produced mobile devices with a wide range of Yandex services. Apparently, this situation is connected with the switch of Explay to the release of phones based on the Google Mobile Services application package (including the Google Play app store). However, the situation looks as if this measure is forced for Explay and is associated with an imposed ban on cooperation and pre-installation of Yandex services. This situation fits into the trend of recent years, in which Google consistently complicates the distribution of search and other services from competing companies.
Since 2012, Explay mobile phones have been produced in Russia with a wide range of pre-installed Yandex applications. Explay received from Yandex a package of popular applications with Maps, Navigator, Taxi, Mail, Search and other services, while widgets of the main services of the services were displayed on the first screen of the devices. Yandex helped Explay attract Russian users and shared advertising revenue in mobile search.
And the second question: how will Explay’s refusal to pre-install Yandex services affect downloads from Yandex.Store (we understand that it cannot be reflected at all, Explay is still a relatively decent part of the Russian market, but how serious is this blow for Yandex)?
Now it is difficult to make a forecast for individual services, but it is obvious that the disappearance of Yandex from Explay devices will not affect the share of Yandex as a whole.
We are more concerned that device manufacturers and users are so significantly limited in the choice of used and pre-installed services.
This undermines fair competition in the market and leads to a general decrease in the quality and diversity of mobile services, which harms the end user.
We, in turn, recall that in Yandex.Store now you can find games from Disney, Gameloft, Electronic Arts, Rovio, Zeptolab and Game Insight.Also on the topic:
Yandex.