 "Google takes cue from Apple; Play Store to allow apps for as low as Rs 10")
In a move that will be cheered by thousands of app developers in India, search giant Google today announced that Google Play users will now be able to get apps starting for as low as Rs 10. This will also allow Google get new users and drive its overall monetisation process.
“India continues to be a major growth opportunity for developers to reach new users on Google Play. We’ve received feedback from our global developer community and today we are offering them more flexibility to choose how much to charge for their apps and games in India. Starting today, developers in India will be able to price their apps and in app products as low as Rs 10,” said Alistair Pott, Product Manager, Google Play said in a blog post.
In order to change the price of their apps or in-app items for Indian users, developers can make the change in pricing in Developer Console by selecting an app and clicking Pricing & Distribution or In-app Products.
Pott further added: “We hope that with this change, they will be able to acquire new paying users and drive overall monetisation.”
The announcement comes after Apple announced different price structure for its App store in India and allowed developers to price is as low as Rs 10.
In India mobile users have affinity for free games and apps with a low base of users preferring to pay. This has made developers to either provide games and apps for free as the threshold of pricing for games and apps was $99 cents, which is about Rs 55 (depending on where the US dollar was).
“I think this was much needed. The threshold of Rs 55 did not make sense for a country like India. But this will just allow monetising a sub-set of people who are ready to pay using their credit card. For the numbers to come in, Google will have crack the code of telecom carrier billing to the Play Store,” said Rajesh Rao, chair, Nasscom gaming council.
Alok Kejriwal, digital entrepreneur and CEO Games2Win that this will be a big boost for developers. “We have eight apps in India which are very popular and they were in the price ranges of Rs 63, Rs 120 and Rs 190. We have slashed the prices of these to Rs 10, Rs 15 and Rs 20. Conversion in India has been very low and Rs 10 seems to be a sweet spot for India.
Google also recently started to sell Google Play prepaid vouchers in India. These cards available in denomination of Rs 500, Rs 1000 and Rs 1,500 can be brought from offline retail outlets and use them for buying apps and other things from Google Play
“India continues to be a major growth opportunity for developers to reach new users on Google Play. We’ve received feedback from our global developer community and today we are offering them more flexibility to choose how much to charge for their apps and games in India. Starting today, developers in India will be able to price their apps and in app products as low as Rs 10,” said Alistair Pott, Product Manager, Google Play said in a blog post.
In order to change the price of their apps or in-app items for Indian users, developers can make the change in pricing in Developer Console by selecting an app and clicking Pricing & Distribution or In-app Products.
Pott further added: “We hope that with this change, they will be able to acquire new paying users and drive overall monetisation.”
The announcement comes after Apple announced different price structure for its App store in India and allowed developers to price is as low as Rs 10.
In India mobile users have affinity for free games and apps with a low base of users preferring to pay. This has made developers to either provide games and apps for free as the threshold of pricing for games and apps was $99 cents, which is about Rs 55 (depending on where the US dollar was).
“I think this was much needed. The threshold of Rs 55 did not make sense for a country like India. But this will just allow monetising a sub-set of people who are ready to pay using their credit card. For the numbers to come in, Google will have crack the code of telecom carrier billing to the Play Store,” said Rajesh Rao, chair, Nasscom gaming council.
Alok Kejriwal, digital entrepreneur and CEO Games2Win that this will be a big boost for developers. “We have eight apps in India which are very popular and they were in the price ranges of Rs 63, Rs 120 and Rs 190. We have slashed the prices of these to Rs 10, Rs 15 and Rs 20. Conversion in India has been very low and Rs 10 seems to be a sweet spot for India.
Google also recently started to sell Google Play prepaid vouchers in India. These cards available in denomination of Rs 500, Rs 1000 and Rs 1,500 can be brought from offline retail outlets and use them for buying apps and other things from Google Play