The Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation has completed the processing of applications from IT companies for inclusion in the list of programs for pre-installation on smartphones and TVs with Smart TV options before being sold in Russia and has compiled a rating of programs by their popularity based on IT companies' own data.

In total, the Ministry received about 100 applications from software manufacturers and compiled a list of applications recommended for pre-installation.

Among browsers, search engines, navigators and cloud services, Yandex products are in the lead, Mail.ru Group leads in the "email", "news aggregator", "social networks" categories, Kaspersky among antiviruses,  "My Office" in the office software  category. In addition,  Gosuslugi and MIR payment systems to be pre-installed. 

The list must be approved by the government, after which the applications with the largest number of unique users will be pre-installed on smartphones, tablets, TVs, laptops and PCs. "At the same time, users will always be able to install programs of similar categories at their own choice," - representatives of  the Ministry of Digital Development added.

In early December, Roskomnadzor presented a list of video services that will be able to apply for pre-installation of their applications, including ivi, Megogo, More.tv, Channel One, Match TV and others.

The pre-installation law, which was signed in December 2019, was due to take effect in July 2020. However, this deadline was first shifted to January 1, 2021 due to the pandemic, and at the end of November the Ministry of Finance supported the postponement of the law for three months - until April 1, 2021.

Original (in Russian)