Four Chinese companies Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo are working to create an “App Store” and alliance that would allow developers from outside China to upload their new app once and have it show up across all four firm’s app stores simultaneously. This will be sudden leap in the opportunities available to the developers across the world including India and Pakistan – fast coming into this market.
Analysts, in an exclusive report by Reuters claim that the initiative by these four Chinese companies is meant to challenge the dominance of Google’s Play store. The move will also help the four companies expand more into software and services as hardware sales decline.
Google Play, formerly called Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for the Android operating system, allowing users to browse and download applications developed with the Android software development kit (SDK) and published through Google.
Google Play also serves as a digital media store, offering music, books, movies, and television programs. It previously offered Google hardware devices for purchase until the introduction of a separate online hardware retailer, Google Store, on March 11, 2015, and it also offered news publications and magazines before the revamp of Google News on May 15, 2018.
The Global Developer Service Alliance or GDSA, for short, reportedly aims to make it easier for developers of games, music, movies and other apps to market their apps in overseas markets.
China's Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are joining forces to create a platform for developers outside China to upload apps onto all of their app stores simultaneously, in a move analysts say is meant to challenge the dominance of Google's Play store. https://t.co/dqN741zdaf
— ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) February 7, 2020
The platform was initially intended to be launched in March, the sources said. It could cover nine “regions” including India, Indonesia and Russia.
According to Sensor Tower analyst Katie Williams, Google has earned almost $9 billion globally from the Play store last year. The company, whose services are banned in China, also sells content such as movies, books and apps on the Play store and collects a 30 percent commission.
“By forming this alliance each company will be looking to leverage the others’ advantages in different regions, with Xiaomi’s strong user base in India, Vivo and Oppo in Southeast Asia, and Huawei in Europe,” said Nicole Peng, the VP of Mobility at technology market analyst firm Canalys.
Read more: Aqsa Kausar: Pakistan’s First Female Google Developer Expert
“Secondly, it’s to start to build some more negotiation power against Google,” she added. The four companies made up over 40 percent of global handset shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to data from the consultancy IDC.
Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi have full access to Google services in international markets. Huawei lost access for new devices last year after Washington banned US suppliers from selling goods and services to the telecoms giant, citing national security risks.