Business in adult. Why LinkedIn has disappeared from app stores

The main IT news of the first days of the new year, of course, was the disappearance of LinkedIn from the Google Play stores and the App Store. Now the social network is not available not only on desktops, but also on mobile devices.

What happened is natural and should not cause any surprise. After official letters from Roskomnadzor, American corporations chose not to escalate the situation and comply with the requirements of Russian legislation. This is especially logical in the light of Russia's accusations of interfering in the course of the American election campaign and the election procedure itself.

Complying with Russian laws, American corporations only emphasized their apolitical nature and their commitment to doing business legally. As the saying goes:

The alarmists immediately raised a howl that the authorities were allegedly blackmailing Western business, forcing him to play by their own rules.

Interestingly, the story of the removal of applications in the Ukrainian media and among users of social networks has become especially popular, for which to present interaction with Russian state bodies as a “new round of censorship” is practically the goal of existence.

But let me say, Russian domestic laws (and LinkedIn, I remind you, have filed claims specifically for non-compliance with the Russian law on the localization of personal data) are an internal affair of the country, Russian society. And they are discussed, adopted and changed in the framework of public debate and the political process, and not as a result of Western companies sabotaging decisions of Russian state bodies.

After all, Russian companies, entering foreign markets, are forced to comply with local laws. The same happens with the auto industry, which is forced to adapt its exhaust systems to Western environmental standards, and with Gazprom, to which the EU has been twisting its arms for years. "Second energy package".

Thus, a similar move by Apple and Google demonstrates that these corporations are headed by business people, not propagandists or professional revolutionaries. Company management is committed to making money in different markets without serious problems with the law. To do this, the policy fades into the background of preserving assets created by great difficulty, and the tactic becomes maintaining a dialogue with government agencies.

The thesis of Japanese millionaire Konosuke Matsusita “Business is war” is hardly applicable to today's realities, when it is much more profitable for a multi-billion dollar turnover to seek a compromise.

To lose such a market as the Russian, none of the companies would not want to. Apple successfully ranks second in the smartphone market, last year we had Apple Pay launched . On the solid positions of Google in Russia and can not speak . So, the implementation of laws by global business has become quite expected: for the two largest IT corporations, the guarantee of successful business and the preservation of the market is more important than scandalous public relations.

Most likely, Google will register a legal entity in a timely manner, as required by Roskomnadzor. Without a doubt, the next step will be consultations on the implementation of Apple and Google's personal data law, which many global IT giants already carry out (Samsung, Lenovo, eBay, PayPal, Alibaba Group, Booking.com, Viber).

Of course, the Russian law on the transfer of servers is far from the only one in world practice. History knows many examples of forced concessions of technological corporations.

It is difficult to surprise anyone with prohibitive measures on the part of China, famous for its very tough Internet laws. However, in addition to the Great Firewall, the Celestial Empire is famous for the largest potential market, so foreign IT companies cannot simply refuse to work in this state.

From relatively recent examples, I recall the ban on iBooks and iTunes Movies, the removal of a number of news apps, Facebook’s attempts to develop software for work in China and many other information shows. All these events are united by the almost unquestioning fulfillment of the requirements of the authorities, for whom the losses from the withdrawal of American corporations from the Chinese market are not as great as for the IT companies themselves.

Goes to the Internet business in the West. Turkish authorities announced their intention to completely abandon the search engine Google and create their own - taking into account national values ​​and culture. The Minister of Communications, by the way, mentioned that user data should be stored within the country, which indicates the preparation of the relevant law.

Even liberal and favorable for IT Europe has serious complaints about the work of American IT giants in the Old World. Companies often became defendants in court cases as defendants, the reason for which was violation of local laws, the monopolistic position of the advertising service, and even incitement of ethnic hatred. A common feature of all these events is the rational economic approach of IT corporations, who have always agreed to make concessions - to close part of the services, pay a fine, and so on, and not leave the local market, slamming the door.