China’s Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo are joining to form 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.
According to Reuters, the Global Developer Service Alliance or GDSA would allow developers outside of China to upload an app once and have it show up across all four manufacturer’s app stores simultaneously.
The GDSA would help the Chinese mobile tech giants challenge Google’s Play Store dominance while also giving developers an easier way to expose their app to billions of users.
Google, whose services are banned in China, earned about $8.8 billion 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.
“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 Canalys.
“Secondly, it’s to start to build some more negotiation power against Google,” she added.
Together the four companies made up 40.1% of global handset shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the consultancy IDC.
While Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi have full access to Google services in international markets, Huawei lost access for new devices last year after the US barred American companies from selling goods and services to it, citing national security. Huawei is also moving away from Google by developing its own Harmony OS as an alternative.
Chinese vendors are trying to capture a greater share of software and services as hardware sales slow, said Will Wong, a smartphone analyst with IDC.
“App store, pre-loading apps, advertisements and gaming are areas that could generate new revenue” he said.
Reuters report that the platform will initially cover nine “regions” including India, Indonesia, and Russia. The GDSA was initially aiming to launch in March, Reuters said, although it is not clear how that will be affected by the recent coronavirus outbreak.
