WASHINGTON, March 5. /TASS/. The pullout from Russian market for the US tech giants would be relatively painless, since the profit share they receive in Russia is extremely small, the Politico newspaper wrote citing analysts.
According to their estimates, companies such as Apple, Google, Meta and Netflix combined would lose about 1-2% of their multibillion-dollar revenues, even if they withdraw all their services from the Russian market. Amazon’s presence in Russia involves limited use of its cloud services and the publication notes. The newspaper emphasizes that it will be easier for technology companies in this regard than for enterprises in other industries.
"For these tech companies, Russia is like breadcrumbs at the table, relative to the overall pie," Dan Ives, a tech industry analyst with investment firm Wedbush Securities said, predicting that the tech companies will eventually back out of the Russian market if the conflict in Ukraine continues. "Investors would welcome with open arms cutting off Russia across the board."
Politico emphasizes that leaving the Russian market in the current conditions would allow American tech companies to improve their image in the eyes of a Western audience, including American politicians, who have recently made many complaints about their work, including being accused of insufficiently active fight against disinformation in social networks. At the same time, from a financial point of view, such a step would be relatively painless for them.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to an appeal from the leaders of the Donbass republics asking for help. He stressed that Moscow's plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. After that, the United States, the EU, the United Kingdom, as well as a number of other states announced that they were imposing sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities. Many Western private companies have also begun to announce their removal from the Russian market.