YooMoney branded as ЮMoney, (formerly Yandex.Money) is an

e-commerce payment system An e-commerce payment system (or an electronic payment system) facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become increa ...

. It is 100% owned by

Sberbank The Public JSC Sberbank (, initially a contraction of ) is a Russian majority state-owned banking and financial services company headquartered in Moscow. As the Russian successor entity of the State Labor Savings Banks System of the USSR, it was ...

and operates in Russia and nearby countries. The company's headquarters are in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. It has branch offices in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

History

The service was launched in 2002 as Yandex.Money () by

Yandex Yandex LLC ( rus, Яндекс, r=Yandeks, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian technology company that provides Internet-related products and services including a web browser, search engine, cloud computing, web mapping, online food ordering, streaming ...

via a partnership with

PayCash PayCash is a Russian electronic payment platform for making anonymous Internet purchases with cash via kiosks. The system is based on the technology proposed in the eighties by Dutch David Chaum. PayCash is developed by CJSC "Processing Technol ...

formed in 2000. In March 2007,

acquired full ownership of the service. In March 2011, the service expanded to

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. Beginning in February 2012, users were able to transfer money to

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

or Mastercard accounts. Also in February 2012, Yandex.Money became the preferred payment method in the

Opera Mobile Store Opera Mobile Store was a platform-independent browser-based app store for mobile-phone owners and a digital application distribution platform used by more than 40,000 developers. It is owned and maintained by Opera. Launched by a third-party ...

. In April 2012, Yandex Money began issuing

debit card A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card, is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either ...

s on the Mastercard network. In October 2012, the company enabled making card payments via a miniature

point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...

terminal attached to a user's smartphone. In July 2013,

acquired a 75% interest in Yandex.Money for $60 million, while Yandex retained a 25% interest. In 2013, the Yandex.Checkout service was launched (later rebranded as

YooKassa YooKassa branded as ЮKassa (Previously Yandex.Checkout) (), is a Russian E-commerce payment system operated by YooMoney, owned by Sberbank. It was launched in 2013. In 2017, YooKassa was the most popular payment application in Russia. In 2018, ...

). In May 2014, Yandex.Money was integrated as a payment option for merchants using

Skrill Skrill is part of Paysafe Limited, a global payments platform. It is one of Paysafe's digital wallet brands and was established in 2001 to offer multiple online payment and money transfer services. Skrill operates in more than 100 countries wi ...

. In October 2014,

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

began selling games via

digital distribution Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of information or materials through digital platforms. The distribution of digital ...

through the service. In April 2016, the service began allowing

near-field communication Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be used for the boots ...

payments via its

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

. In July 2016, the service launched payments via

Apple Watch The Apple Watch is a brand of smartwatch products developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple. It incorporates activity tracker, fitness tracking, Health (Apple), health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates wit ...

. In October 2016, the service began allowing payments via

iMessage iMessage is an instant messaging service developed by Apple Inc. and launched in 2011. iMessage functions exclusively on Apple platforms – including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and visionOS – as part of Apple ecosystem, Apple's approach t ...

. In November 2016, the service began working with

Apple Pay Apple Pay is a mobile payment service by Apple Inc. that allows users to make payments in person, in iOS apps, and on the web. Supported on iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, Apple Pay digitizes and can replace a credit or debi ...

. In March 2017, Ivan Glazachev became CEO of the service. In November 2017, the service launched Yandex.Gas, allowing users to pay for gas remotely, without leaving their cars. 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. In July 2019, the service launched "Ya.Streamer", allowing users to collect donations via streaming platforms, such as

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

Smashcast Smashcast was a live streaming platform that materialised after the merger of Azubu and Hitbox in May 2017. History Azubu's acquisition of Hitbox was announced in January 2017. At the time, they announced they were "launch a new platform, ...

, CyberHero, WASD.TV,

Odnoklassniki Odnoklassniki (), abbreviated as OK or OK.ru, is a social networking service and online video sharing website primarily in Russia and former Soviet Republics. The site was launched on March 4, 2006 by Albert Popkov and is currently owned by VK. ...

, VK,

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

OBS Studio OBS Studio (also Open Broadcaster Software or OBS, for short) is a free and open-source, cross-platform screencasting and live streaming app. It is available for Windows, macOS, Linux distributions, and BSD. The OBS Project raises funds on Open ...

, and

XSplit XSplit is a Proprietary software, proprietary live streaming and video-mixing application developed and maintained by SplitmediaLabs. It is mostly used for capturing gameplay for live streaming or video recording purposes. A Steam (service), Ste ...

. In 2020, Sberbank acquired 100% of the service and it was rebranded to YooMoney.

Legal issues

In 2011, the

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation �СБ, ФСБ России (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterin ...

required the company to disclose details of people who contributed to organizations run by

Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny (, ; 4 June 197616 February 2024) was a Russian Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, opposition leader, anti-corruption in Russia, corruption activist and political prisoner. He founded the Anti-Corruption Found ...

, a leader of the

opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia Opposition to the government of President Vladimir Putin in Russia, commonly referred to as the Russian opposition, can be divided between the parliamentary opposition parties in the State Duma and the various Non-system opposition, non-systemi ...

. As required by law, the company disclosed information for 100 contributors who used the service. In 2016, the

government of Russia The Russian Government () or fully titled the Government of the Russian Federation () is the highest federal executive governmental body of the Russian Federation. It is accountable to the president of the Russian Federation and controlled by ...

allegedly put pressure on the company to close accounts used to raise money for

. The Russian Central Bank denied the allegations. In April 2022, the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current United States federal executive departments, U.S. government departments. ...

initiated sanctions on the service as part of

international sanctions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine Following the full declaration of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which started on 24 February 2022, institutions such as the United States, the European Union, and other Western countries introduced or significantly expanded sanctions coveri ...

References

{{Authority control Financial services companies established in 2002 Online financial services companies of Russia Payment service providers Yandex