Import Substitution Backfires: Russian Software Costs Up To 10x More Than Foreign Giants
Ah, the sweet smell of "import substitution" in the morning! Russia's grand plan to replace Western software with local alternatives has hit a hilarious speed bump: turns out domestic code is absolute garbage that costs ten times more than the original. Surprise!
Local enterprise giants trying to ditch Western systems are finding out that building a working IT setup out of domestic parts is like trying to build a spaceship out of rusted scrap metal. Instead of getting a smooth, unified suite like Microsoft Office, businesses have to buy dozens of separate, clunky Russian programs and manually duct-tape them together.
The owner of cosmetics producer Geltek, Sergey Kirsh, openly admits his company is stuck using foreign software because local alternatives simply do not solve their development tasks and cost way more when bought in pieces. Meanwhile, the head of Allada School, Dmitry Orlov, bluntly revealed that foreign software is up to ten times cheaper than the domestic Russian knockoffs.
Even buying basic things has turned into a financial nightmare, with enterprise budgets for software integration ballooning from tens of millions to tens of billions of rubles. The CEO of cloud integrator OXYGEN, Pavel Kulakov, confirmed that while buying standard office apps is still somewhat possible, purchasing complex enterprise operating systems and database tools has become an unrealistic, budget-destroying quest.
The great national software pivot has successfully transformed into a classic trap: local businesses are stuck between buying overpriced, half-baked domestic Frankenstein-code or running outdated Western giants that gradually rot without official updates. It is a masterclass in economic self-sabotage where the only winner is the local IT integrator charging premium rates for digital duct tape.
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