MTS Bank will launch a service for paying for foreign digital content
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Russian banks continue to try to capitalize on the interest of Russians in purchasing content on foreign platforms. Thus, MTS Bank intends to launch a service for selling vouchers for replenishing virtual wallets in foreign streaming and gaming services. The service is not unique—digital gift cards for topping up accounts are already sold by electronics distributors and trading platforms.
MTS Bank is launching a service for paying for purchases on foreign gaming and streaming platforms that have stopped accepting payments from the Russian Federation. We are talking about services such as Spotify, Twitch, PlayStation, Xbox, Discord, Nintendo, EA Play, etc., a source close to the bank told Kommersant.
According to him, the service will work like this: the user buys a “voucher” in the bank’s mobile application to top up the amount in one of the services, for example, for $10. Then he receives a code by email, which is entered in the service itself, as well as instructions for setting up the account so that it is not associated with Russia. After this, the user enters the received code on the service website and tops up the virtual wallet. MTS Bank confirmed the development of the project, specifying that the official launch is planned for the first half of October.
After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, a number of foreign services blocked the ability of Russians to pay for subscriptions to them, as well as make purchases within such platforms: digital video game stores owned by Sony (PlayStation Store), Microsoft (Xbox Games Store), Valve (Steam store), streaming services such as Spotify, etc.
The situation has led to the emergence of an entire market for the sale of digital codes for video games and other content. Such services are offered, for example, by M.Video-Eldorado, DNS and other sites. Private individuals also sell services for registering accounts in digital game stores in non-Russian regions, most often through classifieds and social networks. “Difficulties with payment in foreign services have led to a significant redistribution of the market: the demand for the purchase of paid content in general has not changed, users began to look for platforms for easy payments,” Astrum explains.
MTS Bank is not the first financial organization that is trying to make money on Russians’ interest in foreign content. In July, Tinkoff Bank launched a service in its application that allows you to directly top up your Steam virtual wallet with a commission of 8–9%. But after a few days, as Habr users noticed, the service turned out to be unavailable. The bank did not respond to Kommersant’s request.
Kommersant’s interlocutor at the market explains that usually its participants have partners in the CIS or friendly countries who have the opportunity to officially buy codes for replenishing virtual wallets from foreign sites. They make money from commissions for each code.
A Kommersant source in the video game development and distribution market notes that the only difference between purchasing a code on one of the sites and what MTS Bank offers is the more official status of the purchase from the latter. The interlocutor believes that the bank wants to take over part of the “albeit gray, but already formed market.”
Astrum does not consider the prospects for this market to be rosy, believing that “the main thing for users is the simplicity and convenience of services,” and therefore most players will prefer shopping in Russian stores, for example, VK Play and Rustore. However, Kommersant’s interlocutor at a large game developer does not agree with this: “Russian digital stores of both mobile and computer games contain practically no content. There’s nothing to spend money on there now.”
According to the general director of the Association of Professionals in the Operating and Game Development Industry (APRIORI, which includes VK, Astrum, United Games, etc.) Alexander Mikheev, the ability for Russians to purchase games in foreign digital stores reduces the popularity of piracy, which “will have a positive impact on the gaming industry.”
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