SHENZHEN, China: China's Xiaomi, Huawei Technologies, 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. Google, whose services are banned in China, earned about US$8.8bil (RM36.3bil) globally from the Play store in 2019, said Katie Williams, an analyst at Sensor Tower. Google also sells content such as movies, books and apps on the Play store and collects a 30% commission. "App store, pre-loading apps, advertisements and gaming are areas that could generate new revenue,” he said. The GDSA might be able to lure some app developers by providing more exposure than the already-crowded Play store, and the new platform could provide better monetary incentives, analysts said.

Source: The Star February 06, 2020 09:56 UTC