Authorities Will Select the Right Search Engine for Smartphones

The ministry is preparing to expand the law on the mandatory pre-installation of domestic programs on mobile devices.

The initiative will oblige smartphone and tablet manufacturers to ensure the use of domestic search engines in pre-installed browsers by default. The procedure for choosing a domestic search engine will be established by the government.

If the idea of ​​the ministry is implemented, then Yandex’s position in the Russian market will strengthen, and Google will have to look for new sources of income in the Russian market, experts say.

Yandex reported that they did not see the final version of the resolution and do not know how the installation of the domestic search will be implemented.

We believe that each person should have the opportunity to freely choose and the most optimal solution could be a “selection window” of a search engine.

Now in mobile devices running Android, Google offers a search engine to choose from in the Chrome browser, the newspaper notes. The list includes Yandex, Google and Mail.ru. This option was introduced in August 2017 in accordance with agreements with Yandex and an agreement with the FAS, which is designed for six years and nine months. On iOS devices, users can also choose a search engine that will work by default in the browser.

As a reminder, according to the law on software preinstallation, starting from April 1, gadgets will need to install 16 classes of programs , including Mail.ru Group, Yandex, Kaspersky Lab applications, Gosuslugi and the Mir payment system. payment system “Mir”. On March 9, the State Duma adopted in the second reading a bill establishing fines of up to 200 thousand rubles from July 1, 2021 for the sale of devices without pre-installed Russian software.

Source: Kommersant