Report: China's Smartphone Makers Are Building a Google Play Store Competitor

Four of China’s major smartphone manufacturers, Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo are reportedly creating a mobile app store for developers outside of China in order to challenge Google’s Play Store.

According to sources who have spoken to Reuters, the four companies are part of a new Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA), to create a platform that will offer games, music, movies and other apps. Together, these four companies account for over 40 percent of smartphones sold, so a single app store would be desirable both for the manufacturers and developers wanting to get their apps out to as wide an audience as possible and without a reliance on Google.

The GDSA was planned to launch in March, although it is possible the spread of the coronavirus might disrupt that in a similar way it is disrupting the Mobile World Congress trade show as well as factories in Wuhan.

According to a prototype GDSA website, the platform will cover nine “regions” including India, Indonesia and Russia. It also included the logo of Wanka Online, an Android ecosystem platform.

In the US and across Europe, most Android users rely on Google’s Play Store - occasionally supplemented by the Amazon AppStore for Fire devices. In China, people use multiple app stores from companies including Tencent (which owns WeChat), Baidu, and the major smartphone manufacturers.

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Due to the trade war between the US and China, Huawei is developing its own app store (called the AppGallery) and its HarmonyOS further with $1 billion of investment after Google Play Services were banned from its flagship Mate 30 range. The United States has a better relationship with other Chinese manufacturers such as OnePlus (which is owned by BBK Electronics, as are Oppo and Vivo), but it’s possible that these companies could be looking for greater security in the event the dispute escalates.

A competing app store could also bring in vast revenue streams for these companies. It's estimated that Google’s Play Store brought the company approximately $8.8 billion globally through movies, books, and apps bought on the platform - of which Google takes a 30% cut.

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