Google Inc yesterday launched Google Play Town in Taiwan, a pop-up store that offers online game developers the opportunity to increase the exposure of their mobile games.
“This is the first time Google has ever done it. We decided to do it here because Taiwan is such an important gaming market to us,” Google Asia Pacific head of marketing Simon Kahn told reporters on the sidelines of the launch event.
Citing Google’s internal statistics, Kahn said that over three-quarters of Taiwanese have smartphones, which is one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world.
Photo: CNA
“Taiwanese spend an average of 80 minutes a day playing mobile games on a smartphones, so it is an important market to us,” Kahn said.
Google Asia-Pacific president Karim Temsamani said the number of Taiwanese developers registered on Google Play has more than doubled in the past two years.
The spending on Taiwanese apps outside of the nation also increased more than 2.5 times in the past year, Temsamani said, without disclosing figures.
“Taiwan is shaping Google’s mobile strategy. We want to help the nation’s developers get into the global market via Google Play and that’s why we launched Google Play Town,” Temsamani said.
“Google Play Town gives game developers face-to-face feedback from users. It also gives users a different gaming experience,” Google Taiwan marketing manager Richard Li (利啟正) said.
Li said that Taiwan’s game developers have innovative ideas, but they need to invest more in marketing to increase their exposure in the mobile gaming market.
“We encourage developers to join Google Play’s platform as we have more marketing resources to help them,” Li said.
The 100-ping (3306m2) Google Play Town is to officially open tomorrow in front of Taipei 101. The event, featuring more than 70 games, closes on Dec. 13.
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