Nicole Laskowski: I'm Nicole Laskowski senior news
director at Tech Target. And today I'm here with
reporter MacKenzie Holland. She recently covered a
story on how technology companies are responding
to the war in Ukraine. For more information on
this topic, click the link above or in the
description below.
I wanted to first get started by asking how the
story evolved.
Makenzie Holland: Sure, I'm glad you asked. Well,
first of all, I worked on this story in
conjunction with two other reporters here on the
news team, Patrick Tibideaux. And Jim O'Donnell.
And really, the reason that we caught on to this
story is via social media, the Ukraine, Vice Prime
Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, he took to social media
really amping up pressure on tech companies, and
essentially putting out a rallying cry for an IT
army, you know, asking them to stop product sales
stop services to Russia, following the invasion,
you know, essentially calling out companies to,
you know, respond to this, and put pressure on
Russia. And so that's how we really got started on
this story was through social media, and Ukraine's
Vice Prime Minister, putting out that rallying
cry.
Nicole Laskowski: So talk a little bit about the
responses you're seeing from these technology
companies there. I know, the White House has put
out some sanctions that's affecting the kinds of
responses you're seeing, but what else are you
seeing? Sure, yeah.
Makenzie Holland: And you know, that's perfectly
right to say that, you know, Fedorov put out the
rallying cry on social media. But President Joe
Biden has also placed economic sanctions on
Russia, which is really impacting their ability to
purchase high tech and to purchase anything
outside of the country. And essentially, the
companies that are responding now are not only
responding to Fedorov and the sanctions, but it is
a show of support for them for Ukraine to respond
in this manner. So companies like Google, they've
limited ad revenue for Russian back state media,
they've limited services such as Google Pay, and
so has Apple Apple's limited Apple Pay, they've
stopped new product sales in Russia, and even
companies beyond big tech, Oracle, SAP. So we're
really seeing a broad response across the board in
multiple areas of company, providing services and
products to Russia.
Nicole Laskowski: I know one of the questions you
kind of were you were seeking to answer was how
these technologies or responses from these
technology companies are actually going to have an
effect on the Russian economy. So tell us what you
found.
Makenzie Holland: Yeah. So according to analysts
that I talked to, you know, Russia has faced
sanctions before, and they had time to prepare for
the sanctions that were placed on them by
President Biden. So in the short term Russia has
prepared so they might not be as impacted by these
economic sanctions as they will in the long term,
because the long term impact is the unity being
shown by these companies and by countries stopping
products, so stopping services to Russia, which we
will see the impacts of that a long term. But in
the short term, Russia's spending on information
and communications technologies is not as much as
other countries around the globe. You know,
according to market research firm IDC, Russia
spent about 50 billion on information
communication technologies in 2021. That's 10% of
what China spent, for example, it's less than the
Netherlands and the US, you know, we spent about
1.6 trillion on those kinds of communication
technologies and 2021. So Russia, spending being
less means that in the short term, these companies
stopping their sales and stopping their services
might not be as impactful to the country as it
will in the long term, you know, as Russia
continues to not be able to purchase tech and not
be able to trade.
Nicole Laskowski: That raises. Another question
that I'm interested in hearing you talk about a
little bit is that how does this response affect
the technology companies themselves? The economics
there?
Makenzie Holland: Sure. And I think we see that a
little bit in the language of, you know how these
companies are responding to stopping sales and
stopping services in Russia. A lot of companies
are halting new product sales to Russia, or halted
limiting services in some way. That's not
impacting maybe services that have been provided
previously. So I think it'll depend the impact on
these different companies, you know, as time plays
out, in the crisis plays out because some
companies have more services provide more services
provide more products to Russia than others. And I
think we see that a little bit in the language of
the responses. So the impact can vary from company
to company.