According to latest reports, the largest search engine in the world, Google Inc., is pushing back to China by providing domestic developers with the opportunity to sell paid applications in its Play store, which is currently available to the 632 million Internet users in the country.
After closing its Chinese search page four years ago, Google has decided to allow application manufacturers in the country to become part of its distribution chain. This step is to help the company generate sales on overseas market due to its in-app purchases and subscriptions.
In addition, the app stores in China has recently been quite chaotic, not only because of their number, but also because of piracy issues. The return of the U.S.-based company in the country is meant to bring some order on one hand, and increase the revenue, on the other hand.
Google has recently become more reliant on its revenue growth generated by the application store. According to a statement of the companys Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Pichette, its third-quarter sales, which include the Play app store, increased 50%.
According to reports, Google approached the officials in Beijing in 2013 on the matters of opening a China-based version of Google Play Store. One of the official representatives of the company refused to make any comments on this information.
The organizer of Beijing Tech Hive, Andy Mok, commented on the matter in an interview for Bloomberg: “In the app space there are more and more interesting products developed in China, and Google would certainly want a share of that. It’s a huge positive for Chinese developers because more distribution is always a good thing.”
Google Inc. was down 0.63% to close at $543.76 per share yesterday, marking a one-year increase of 6.28%. The company is valued at $365.84 billion. According to CNN Money, the 43 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Google Inc. have a median target of $640.00, with a high estimate of $750.00 and a low estimate of $530.00. The median estimate represents a +17.70% increase from the last price of $543.76.