MAX is modeled on Tencent’s WeChat: a single app for messaging, public services, payments, and digital identity. The Kremlin presents the app as a matter of technological sovereignty. As of March 2026, the app reported having over 100 million registered users. In reality, it represents another step toward a closed and controllable internet.
Russians see MAX’s real goal themselves. On Instagram, women post videos speaking to the app as if it already has access to everything on their phones. “Since you’re already in there and can see everything anyway, at least be useful,” one says, before asking when her doctor’s appointment is. After a short pause, a male voice cuts in, faintly annoyed: noon, not 2:00 p.m.
MAX would have little chance of adoption without the Kremlin forcing Russians to use the app. For years, tech executives have chased the dream of the “everything app” — one place for chat, payments, shopping, media, and services. The theory is seductive. Give users everything in one place, and they will never leave.
Outside of China and pockets of Asia, however, superapps have largely failed. WeChat grew in a huge mobile-first market, with weak legacy infrastructure and a protected digital ecosystem that kept out foreign rivals. Tencent reported that Weixin and WeChat together had 1.418 billion monthly active users at the end of 2025.
Other Asian examples thrive, building in markets where many consumers moved straight to smartphones and digital wallets. Grab, the Singapore-based superapp, began with ride-hailing and expanded into food delivery, payments, and financial services. It now serves more than 50 million monthly transacting users across eight countries. South Korea’s KakaoTalk expanded from a near-ubiquitous domestic chat service to host payment, shopping, banking, and transportation services.
The superapp model requires either a greenfield or a protected market. The West has neither. In the US, consumers already have apps for almost every task: iMessage or WhatsApp for messaging, Amazon for shopping, Uber for rides, Apple Pay for payments, and Google Maps for navigation. No obvious gap exists for a single platform.
Some companies have tried anyway. Elon Musk wants X to become an “everything app,” but it remains far from one. Uber has long talked about becoming a broader consumer platform, yet it remains a rides and delivery company.
In Europe, markets are fragmented, and privacy rules make it hard to bundle data, payments, identity, and services. London fintech Revolut comes closest, turning itself into a broad financial app for more than 70 million customers, spanning banking, payments, trading, savings, insurance, and crypto.
When it comes to apps, Russia resembles the West more than the East. Russians are already attached to other digital messaging services, especially Telegram and, until recently, WhatsApp. With the market full of alternatives, MAX could not persuade Russians to move in large numbers without coercion.
The Kremlin understands. It blocked WhatsApp in February and promoted MAX as the domestic replacement. Since then, internet restrictions have expanded, justified by the Kremlin as temporary security measures. Mobile internet shutdowns and restrictions on messaging services have caused growing public anger and alarmed parts of the political and business elite.
Despite the strong-arm measures, the transition remains rocky. Telegram, in particular, proved hard to dislodge, triggering a rare public rift inside Russia’s elite. It is a key platform for pro-Kremlin bloggers and war propagandists who rely on it for audience and advertising income. Squeezing Telegram means squeezing part of the regime’s own ecosystem.
Distrust about MAX runs so deep that even people inside the system appear uneasy. Some officials even reportedly use one device for MAX and another without it. Security researchers identified 213 vulnerabilities in the app through a bug bounty program. This reinforces a perception that the app is politically loaded, intrusive, and technically shaky.
An Internet built on competition may feel bulky compared to a seamless one. But it is hard to capture, hard to surveil, and hard to weaponize. MAX may yet become unavoidable for millions of Russians. But it will be unable to convince users on its own merits. It will require brute force.
Dr. Anda Bologa is a senior researcher in the Tech Policy Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
Bandwidth is CEPA’s online journal dedicated to advancing transatlantic cooperation on tech policy. All opinions expressed on Bandwidth are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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