Russian electronic payment service
YooMoney branded as ЮMoney , (formerly Yandex.Money ) is an e-commerce payment system . It is 100% owned by Sberbank and operates in Russia and nearby countries.
The company's headquarters are in Moscow . It has branch offices in Saint Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod .
History
The service was launched in 2002 as Yandex.Money (Russian : Яндекс.Деньги ) by Yandex via a partnership with PayCash formed in 2000.[ 1] [ 2]
In March 2007, Yandex acquired full ownership of the service.[ 1] [ 3]
In March 2011, the service expanded to Ukraine , Belarus , and Kazakhstan .[ 2]
Beginning in February 2012, users were able to transfer money to Visa or Mastercard accounts.[ 4]
Also in February 2012, Yandex.Money became the preferred payment method in the Opera Mobile Store .[ 5]
In April 2012, Yandex Money began issuing debit cards on the Mastercard network.[ 6] [ 7] [ 8]
In October 2012, the company enabled making card payments via a miniature point of sale terminal attached to a user's smartphone.[ 9]
In July 2013, Sberbank acquired a 75% interest in Yandex.Money for $60 million, while Yandex retained a 25% interest.[ 10] [ 11] [ 12]
In 2013, the Yandex.Checkout service was launched (later rebranded as YooKassa ).[ 13] [ 14] [ 15]
In May 2014, Yandex.Money was integrated as a payment option for merchants using Skrill .[ 16]
In October 2014, Nintendo began selling games via digital distribution through the service.[ 17]
In April 2016, the service began allowing near-field communication payments via its mobile app .[ 18]
In July 2016, the service launched payments via Apple Watch .[ 19] [ 20]
In October 2016, the service began allowing payments via iMessage .[ 21] [ 22] In November 2016, the service began working with Apple Pay .[ 23]
In March 2017, Ivan Glazachev became CEO of the service.[ 24] [ 25]
In November 2017, the service launched Yandex.Gas, allowing users to pay for gas remotely, without leaving their cars.[ 26]
In March 2019, the service began allowing for accounts holding 10 major currencies; the service automatically determines the best currency in which to make a payment.[ 27] [ 28] [ 29]
In July 2019, the service launched "Ya.Streamer", allowing users to collect donations via streaming platforms, such as YouTube , Twitch , Smashcast , CyberHero, WASD.TV, Odnoklassniki , VK , Facebook , OBS Studio , and XSplit .[ 30]
In 2020, Sberbank acquired 100% of the service and it was rebranded to YooMoney.[ 31] [ 32] [ 33]
Legal issues
In 2011, the Federal Security Service required the company to disclose details of people who contributed to organizations run by Alexey Navalny , a leader of the opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia .[ 34] [ 35] As required by law, the company disclosed information for 100 contributors who used the service.[ 36]
In 2016, the government of Russia allegedly put pressure on the company to close accounts used to raise money for Alexey Navalny .[ 37] The Russian Central Bank denied the allegations.[ 38]
In April 2022, the United States Department of the Treasury initiated sanctions on the service as part of international sanctions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine .[ 39]
References
^ a b "Yandex Becomes the Sole-Owner of Yandex.Money" (Press release). Yandex . 30 March 2007.
^ a b O'Hear, Steve (15 March 2011). "Russian search engine Yandex expands its PayPal-competitor to CIS countries" . TechCrunch .
^ Shipilova, Elena (24 December 2012). "Government embraces Yandex" . Russia Beyond .
^ "Yandex.Money Enables Funds Transfers to Visa or MasterCard Accounts" . Yandex (Press release). 9 February 2012.
^ Lunden, Ingrid (28 February 2012). "Opera Takes Over Payments In Its App Store; Inks Deal With Yandex In Russia" . TechCrunch .
^ "Yandex.Money Launches Debit Card" (Press release). GlobeNewswire . 17 April 2012.
^ Nielsen, Rachel (17 April 2012). "Yandex Electronic Payments System Adds MasterCard Plastic" . The Moscow Times .
^ Bryant, Martin SFP (17 April 2012). "Russian Internet giant Yandex takes its online wallet offline with the launch of debit cards" . The Next Web .
^ Golitsyna, Anastasia (31 October 2012). "Yandex.Money to turn smartphones into POS terminals" . Russia Beyond .
^ "Sberbank: Yandex and Sberbank of Russia Finalise Yandex.Money Joint Venture" . EQS News. 4 July 2013.
^ Henni, Adrien (9 August 2017). "Yandex and Sberbank announce $500 million joint venture to create 'leading ecommerce ecosystem' in Russia" . VentureBeat .
^ Degeler, Andrii (19 December 2012). "Yandex sells 75% of its online payment service to Russia's largest bank Sberbank for $60 million" . The Next Web .
^ "Scan and pay: Yandex wants QR codes everywhere" . Industry Dive . 29 July 2016.
^ Patel, Manisha (11 November 2016). "Yandex.Checkout to strengthen collaboration with Chinese online retailers" . The Fintech Times .
^ "Yandex.Checkout launches QR-code payment feature" . Electronic Payments International . 1 August 2016.
^ "Skrill To Launch In Russia" . Pymnts . 27 May 2014.
^ Takahashi, Dean (3 October 2014). "Nintendo starts selling digital games in Russia through Yandex" . VentureBeat .
^ "Yandex.Money adds NFC payments to mobile app" . Finextra . 20 April 2016.
^ "Yandex.Money to Launch Payments via Apple Watch" . PaymentsJournal . 15 July 2016.
^ "Russia's Yandex Money adds Apple Watch support" . Industry Dive . 15 July 2016.
^ "Yandex.Money joins mobile messaging revolution" . FinExtra . 6 October 2016.
^ "Yandex.Money introduces money transfers via iMessage" . East-West Digital News . 12 October 2016.
^ Patel, Manisha (7 November 2016). "Yandex.Money Brings Apple Pay to Customers in Russia" . The Fintech Times .
^ "Executive Spotlight Series with Ivan Glazachev, CEO of Yandex.Money" . Payments Journal . 25 October 2017.
^ "Yandex Money brings bankers onboard" . Finextra . 1 March 2017.
^ "Yandex.Money to Enable Online Payment for Gas With an App" . PaymentsJournal . 9 November 2017.
^ "Yandex.Money goes multicurrency" . Finextra . 28 March 2019.
^ Blakey, Douglas (28 March 2019). "Yandex Money multi-currency service launches" . Electronic Payments International .
^ "Yandex.Money Targets Freelancers With Multi-Currency Solution" . Pymnts . 29 March 2019.
^ "Yandex.Money enters streaming donations market via Ya.Stream — a good sign for the market" . 12 July 2019 – via Medium .
^ "Now fully owned by Sber, Yandex.Checkout rebrands to 'YooMoney' " . bne IntelliNews . 2 December 2020.
^ Henni, Adrien (2 July 2020). "Yandex and Sberbank Finalize Divorce" . The Moscow Times .
^ "Yandex and Sberbank agree to reorganize Yandex.Market and Yandex.Money" (Press release). GlobeNewswire . 23 June 2020.
^ Starobin, Paul (22 March 2022). "Is Russia's Largest Tech Company Too Big to Fail?" . Wired .
^ Antoniuk, Daryna (9 August 2023). "Regulators fear Russia could access Yandex taxi data from Europe, Central Asia" . Recorded Future .
^ Iosebashvili, Ira; Mauldin, William (4 May 2011). "Kremlin Pressures Search Firm" . The Wall Street Journal .
^ Stanovaya, Tatiana (27 November 2019). "Yandex Is Safe for Now, but Kremlin Compromise Is Fragile" . The Moscow Times .
^ "Russian Central Bank Denies Interfering With Alexey Navalny's Election Fundraising" . The Moscow Times . 25 January 2017.
^ "U.S. Treasury Escalates Sanctions on Russia for Its Atrocities in Ukraine" (Press release). United States Department of the Treasury . 6 April 2022.
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