{"id":16495,"date":"2025-12-04T19:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T19:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/snapchat-banned-in-russia-another-blow-for-the-app\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T19:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T19:40:00","slug":"snapchat-banned-in-russia-another-blow-for-the-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/snapchat-banned-in-russia-another-blow-for-the-app\/","title":{"rendered":"#\n                Snapchat Banned in Russia, Another Blow for the App"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/snapchat-banned-in-russia-another-blow-for-the-app\/#Snapchat_Banned_in_Russia_Another_Blow_for_the_App\" >Snapchat Banned in Russia, Another Blow for the App<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Snapchat_Banned_in_Russia_Another_Blow_for_the_App\"><\/span>\n                Snapchat Banned in Russia, Another Blow for the App<br \/>\n            <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech\">\n    <button class=\"text-to-speech__button button\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-to-speech__button__icon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.socialmediatoday.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?500116090725\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/>\n        Listen to the article<br \/>\n        <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">3 min<\/span><br \/>\n    <\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls\">\n        <audio controls=\"\" class=\"js-text-to-speech\" preload=\"none\"><source src=\"https:\/\/text-to-speech.divecdn.com\/newspost\/807091\/2025-12-05_08.56.17\/snapchat-banned-in-russia-another-blow-for-the-app.wav\" type=\"audio\/mp3\"><\/source><\/audio><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls__text\">\n            This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Seems like it\u2019s probably not a great time for Snap Inc.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>With Snapchat\u2019s growth already flat-lining in key markets, and the platform set to lose another <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2025\/nov\/24\/snapchat-to-tell-440k-australians-to-prove-theyre-16-or-accounts-will-be-locked-in-social-media-ban\" style=\"color:#0563c1\">half a million users<\/a> next week due to Australia\u2019s under-16 social media ban, the platform has also now been <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-12-04\/russia-expands-limits-with-snapchat-facetime-ban-interfax-says?embedded-checkout=true\" style=\"color:#0563c1\">banned in Russia<\/a>, due to its reported usage by organized terror groups. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Snapchat has been cut off in Russia, along with Apple\u2019s FaceTime, after an investigation found them to be facilitating suspect activities.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>As reported by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-12-04\/russia-expands-limits-with-snapchat-facetime-ban-interfax-says?embedded-checkout=true\" style=\"color:#0563c1\">Bloomberg<\/a>:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><em><span><span><span><span>\u201c[Russia\u2019s]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><em><span><span><span> communications agency Roskomnadzor said Snapchat and FaceTime were being used within Russia \u2018to organize and carry out terrorist acts\u2019 and recruit perpetrators, as well as to commit fraud and other crimes.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Which is not a huge surprise, though you would assume that such groups would turn to encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp instead. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>But Russia also restricted <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/aug\/13\/russia-clamps-down-on-whatsapp-and-telegram-over-data-sharing\" style=\"color:#0563c1\">WhatsApp and Telegram back in August<\/a>, which is seemingly part of the Russian government\u2019s broader effort to push citizens to use the state-controlled messaging app MAX instead, which was developed by the Kremlin, and is being <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/21\/world\/europe\/russia-max-app.html\" style=\"color:#0563c1\">heavily promoted in the region<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>It seems that Snapchat and FaceTime are the latest victims in Russia\u2019s effort to enact more control over citizen activity. Which Snap may well have seen coming, as Russian authorities have moved to force phone companies to pre-install MAX on their devices.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>But even so, it\u2019s another blow for Snap, which counts around <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/2025\/12\/04\/roskomnadzor-confirms-its-blocking-snapchat-and-facetime-calls-a91336\" style=\"color:#0563c1\">8 million users in the region<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>The loss of 8.5 million users will put another dent in Snapchat\u2019s growth potential, and limit the value of its ad business. Snapchat has been working to maximize its available opportunities, by working to win over more SMB ad spend, and it has been succeeding in improving its business performance.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>But a decline in usage now seems almost inevitable for Q4, though some of these losses will be countered by ongoing growth in developing regions. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>The problem with those markets is that Snap doesn\u2019t generate as much revenue from Indian and Southeast Asian users, so the impact on its bottom line doesn\u2019t correlate. So even if Snap can come out at flat growth, the loss of a portion of its Australian audience, and Russia entirely, will impact its business potential.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>But rather than focus on the negative, Snap\u2019s looking to its AR advances instead, as it eyes the launch of its AR-enabled Spectacles sometime next year. My view is that this will not be a successful product, and could actually mark the beginning of the end of this current iteration of Snap, with the company set to lose millions in the development of AR glasses that will almost immediately be superseded by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2024\/09\/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses\/\" style=\"color:#0563c1\">Meta\u2019s Orion AR device<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Meta\u2019s version looks better, has better functionality, and will build on the success of Meta\u2019s Ray Ban AI glasses, which have become a hit for the company.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Snap\u2019s Spectacles, meanwhile, launched to much fanfare but ended up <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2017\/11\/7\/16620718\/snapchat-spectacles-40-million-lost-failure-unsold-inventory\" style=\"color:#0563c1\">costing the company millions<\/a> due to low sales and consumer interest. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Its AR Specs are set to follow the same path, and with its user growth in decline, it seems like things are only going to get more challenging for the app. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>And it\u2019s already added ads into people\u2019s inboxes, where else is it going to push promotions to boost its revenue potential?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>The broader story here, of course, is Russia\u2019s push towards a walled garden approach to local connectivity, which will give the Kremlin more control over how people use the internet, and what they see. But for Snapchat, it\u2019s another hit that will hurt the company\u2019s growth plans. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Social Media<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialmediatoday.com\/news\/snapchat-banned-in-russia-another-blow-for-the-app\/807091\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Snapchat Banned in Russia, Another Blow for the App Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Seems like it\u2019s probably not a great time for Snap Inc. With Snapchat\u2019s growth already flat-lining in key markets, and the platform set to lose another half a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/imgproxy.divecdn.com\/gLovkk_EkyK4zBouf2JVJsJvORTYwkndS2dnbqTGxeo\/g:ce\/rs:fit:770:435\/Z3M6Ly9kaXZlc2l0ZS1zdG9yYWdlL2RpdmVpbWFnZS9zbmFwY2hhdF9sb2dvMV9Od0Z6MnAzLmpwZw==.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1521],"class_list":["post-16495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-media","tag-snapchat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yohrt.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}