Google Play, the mobile app store for the Android operating system, yesterday launched a “Made-in-Taiwan Corner” in an effort to help further expand local app developers’ presence in the Taiwanese market.
It was the first time Google has introduced a section in the app store for developers from an individual Asian-Pacific nation, suggesting the market’s importance to the US company.
Taiwan was one of the top five nations by revenue on Google Play last year, the company said, without disclosing figures.
“Given the app developing and revenue growth potentials, we consider Taiwan the Silicon Valley of the East,” Google Play Asia-Pacific director James Sander said at the company’s five-year anniversary celebration in Taipei yesterday.
Sander said Google Play has more than 1.4 billion active users worldwide and more than 1 million apps available, of which 3,500 apps were developed by Taiwanese.
The “Made-in-Taiwan Corner” features a wide range of apps, such as social networking and games, and places them on the top of the Google Play store, which would help local developers increase their exposure and reach more customers, Sander said.
Google Play has also offered online tools and marketing analysis and held conferences for Taiwanese developers, assisting them in going global in the past five years, he said.
Total downloads of Taiwanese-developed apps on Google Play reached 465 million last year, up more than 10-fold from 43 million downloads in 2012 — the year Google relaunched Android Market as Google Play, statistics from market researcher App Annie showed.
Revenue from Taiwanese apps in overseas markets was US$53 million last year, compared with US$400,000 in 2012, App Annie Asia-Pacific managing director Junde Yu (余俊德) said, citing the statistics.
The top five overseas markets by downloads for Taiwanese apps are the US, India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia, suggesting that Taiwanese apps are not only welcomed in mature markets, but have also received a positive response in emerging markets, Yu said.
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