Yandex Pay

Plans to create Yandex's own payment service became known in February 2021 from Yandex's documents.^[1] The service was presumably intended for marketing purposes (to increase customer loyalty and brand recognition) and for collecting data on payments, their subsequent analysis and use. However, at that time CNews regarded Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Mir Pay as the service's competitors.^[2]

On 10 March 2021 the service under the name Yandex Pay was launched, allowing purchases to be paid for by bank card without entering card details. At the same time, users had to link their cards to their Yandex account.^[3][4] Initially, according to a 2021 report by the Central Bank, Yandex Pay used a closed model (only within Yandex services and with partner organizations).^[5]

In early 2022 Yandex and NSPK (the operator of payment system Mir) joined Samsung in a patent dispute against the Swiss company Sqwin SA. They sought to have the disputed patent on a payment system invalidated at Rospatent. Experts interviewed by Kommersant assumed that the companies were acting pre‑emptively, since in the future Sqwin SA could raise claims not only against Samsung Pay but also against similar technologies: Yandex Pay and Mir Pay.^[6] Yandex itself referred to the negative impact "not only on the development of the payment solutions market, but also on the availability of mobile devices for Russian users".^[7]

In autumn 2022 Yandex Pay was integrated into the Tinkoff ecosystem and began operating on websites using Tinkoff Kassa.^[8]

In September 2023 Yandex Pay was renamed to "Яндекс Пэй", with the ability to pay using an NFC module (Android only) or by scanning a QR code.^[9][10]

In July 2024 "Яндекс Пэй" was connected to Sber’s "Plati QR" platform for paying for purchases in offline stores via QR code.^[11]

• Faster Payment System
• Digital ruble