Last week, Apple announced that it would temporarily stop selling its products in Russia. This week, the tech giant has taken another step to distance itself from Russia, suspending its Apple Search Ads service on the Russian App Store “until further notice”.
Apple informed its developer community of the news in an email, in which it also said that no further Search Ads campaigns would be eligible to run on the App Store in Russia for as long as the suspension lasted.
The Apple Search Ads service enables developers to run advertising campaigns on the App Store. Intriguingly, the email communicating news of the suspension was reportedly sent to developers around the world, and not just to App Store developers based in Russia, or those with active Search Ads campaigns in the country.
The email, from “the Apple Search Ads Team”, explained: “All Apple Search Ads campaigns running on the App Store in Russia have been placed on hold, and no new campaigns will be eligible to run on the App Store in Russia for the duration of the suspension.”
As previously reported, on top of stopping Search Ads and sales of its products in the region, Apple has removed media outlets RT and Sputnik from the App Store in non-Russian markets. The Cupertino firm has also disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine, to help protect Ukrainian citizens.
At the time of typing, Apple was yet to comment publicly on its decision to remove Search Ads from Russia’s App Store.