Google Russia forced to declare bankruptcy after bank account confiscation

Google going out of business?! Apparently so in Russia. According to Reuters, Google’s Russia subsidiary plans to file for bankruptcy after “authorities seized its bank account, making it impossible to continue operations.”Reuters has a statement from Google:

The confiscation of the Google Russia bank account by the Russian authorities has made it impossible for us to operate our Russian office, including hiring and paying Russian employees, paying vendors and vendors, and meeting other financial obligations. Google Russia has published a notice of intent to declare itself bankrupt.

The filing with regulators revealed that Google Russia has been waiting to file for bankruptcy since March 22. The division’s revenue was $2 billion last year, but that doesn’t really matter when the authorities take your entire bank account.

Unlike many technology companies that left Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, Google is trying to continue doing business in the country. Powerful attackers such as Google Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Google Play still operate in Russia. Google’s most important product, the advertising platform, was shut down in Russia on March 3 after the Russian government began demanding censorship of war ads. Over the next few days in March, the big four credit card companies withdrew from Russia, making normal business operations very difficult. Google cited this “payment system glitch “as the reason for the shutdown of paid Google Play apps.

It is not yet clear what kind of presence Google will have in Russia in the future. Google has been accused of having a warm relationship with Russia, and its behavior differs from competitors such as Microsoft and Apple, which voluntarily stopped providing paid services in the country before credit card companies pulled out. While Google’s search market share is around 90% in many countries, Russia is one of the few places where the company faces serious search competition; Google shares the search market nearly 50/50 with local tech company Yandex. This market share may explain why Google is not taking a hard line on Russia — if it is blocked, even temporarily, there may not be a market to return to.

However, the Russian government still wants to rely on Google for some services. On Tuesday, the government said it wanted to keep YouTube operating in the country, saying the shutdown would harm Russian citizens. As in the rest of the world, there are no video sites in Russia on such a scale as YouTube.