Google’s Ukrainian division saw profitability decline despite the broader expansion of the domestic digital advertising market. The main reason was the redirection of local clients’ financial transactions through the corporation’s European structures. This is reported by Forbes Ukraine.
According to published data, the company’s profits decreased by 24% to UAH 1.87 billion. The dynamics demonstrate a clear reduction: if in 2024 the legal entity’s net profit reached UAH 2.21 billion, by the end of 2025 it had dropped to UAH 1.65 billion.
The determining factor in such a decline is a change in the routes for processing advertising payments. A significant part of the funds Ukrainian clients pay with bank cards or credit lines is now processed directly by the tech giant’s European offices. It is therefore not recorded in the local branch’s reporting. Additionally, large businesses are increasingly integrating complex solutions, such as the Google Marketing Platform ecosystem, for which billing is also conducted outside the borders of a Ukrainian legal entity.
In parallel, the introduction of a 20% VAT on digital services from non-residents (the so-called “Google tax”), according to market participants, did not have a critical impact on the advertising budgets of medium and large enterprises. In the first nine months of 2025 alone, foreign corporations transferred UAH 10.6 billion to the Ukrainian budget under this article.
The company’s main competitor, Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram), also operates exclusively through its European representative offices and does not disclose local financial indicators in Ukraine. Together, Google, Facebook, and Instagram control about 72% of the entire Ukrainian digital advertising market. At the same time, Google’s share of individual advertisers’ budgets is about 40%, while Meta products can account for up to 50%. Other players, including TikTok, remain niche and cover no more than 5% of budgets.
