Google Merchant Accounts for South African Android app monetization..

[BernardV]

Looking at the following:

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/table/3539140?hl=en

I still seems that South African's have no ability to register for Google Merchant Accounts in South Africa, I was just wondering if any South African Android developers know anything about the prospects of Android app monetization coming in the near future?

If not, how do you go about making some revenue from your apps? I really dislike ads and almost always prefer an app that cost a couple of Rands with no adds present..

 

[[)roi(]]

You have about as much chance going indie vs. just listing in an Appstore; far more miss than hit. Even with costly advertising your chances are at best substantially less than 50/50 (assuming of course your app doesn't suck & it fits some need).

IMO: You'd have more luck throwing your money at local advertising agencies (radio, newspaper, tv, ...).

The days of becoming rich through an App Store is long gone... majority of the core app / game developers are actively choosing to list outside; the only real restriction ATM is Apple and iOS -- i.e. you still can't sell an app outside of the iOS AppStore, Android in that regard is easy.

 

[Pakka]

You can monetize through ads though

 

[BernardV]

As I said I really dislike ads and would prefer not to add them, they provide a bad user experience.

 

[Pakka]

That's true. Possibly show interstitial ads only at certain points in your app, say while it's loading.
Alternatively, don't worry about monetization straight away and rather focus on getting numbers into your app

 

[[)roi(]]

As I said I really dislike ads and would prefer not to add them, they provide a bad user experience.

Getting someone to part with Rands or Dollars is never easy; your biggest hurdle is raising awareness -- it's the biggest difference between good income & nothing.

If you can't pay for your awareness campaign, then the only "less expensive / free" channels available to you is through one of the app stores, but then as you're become aware most app stores don't support SA act all (or very well, and even worse you're still face with a challenge of how to avoid going unnoticed in amongst > hundred thousands of apps.