how to sell android apps in south africa?

[droplet]

google currently does not support south africa as a location in which to set up an android developer account that can sell apps.

what are the workarounds for this?

 

[AlphaJohn]

Add support, or contact someone/a Company outside of SA and let them cert and host it.

 

[droplet]

if i contact someone outside SA, how much control do i have over branding? how much certainty is there about payments?

what happens then when google start supporting SA as a valid paid developer country? can the account be transferred?

 

[droplet]

bump

 

[shauntir]

I'm not an andriod dev. Just saw this and was confused - want to learn how all this works...

If you develop an andriod app (someone in SA), you're able to push it to google play but not have an account in SA where you receive your funds? So you need an account in the US to receive your profits?

 

[droplet]

I'm not an andriod dev. Just saw this and was confused - want to learn how all this works...

If you develop an andriod app (someone in SA), you're able to push it to google play but not have an account in SA where you receive your funds? So you need an account in the US to receive your profits?

merchant accounts on the play store are not supported for south africa. you can publish an app to the play store, but you are not able to charge for it - free apps only.

i would like to know whether there are any third parties that facilitate this for south african app publishers, or whether there are any other solutions to the problem.

 

[noob_saibot]

Do a work around. Launch a limited version on the app-store (demo) and then use some SA credit-card payment gateway to buy a license for the full version.

IMHO, free (with ads) or in-app payments in the best way to go these days. Nobody really buys apps (and if they do, it is on IPhone, much less on Android).

Unless the niche is small enough to warrant buying the app (Google gets 30% of it though), try other strategies.

 

[droplet]

Do a work around. Launch a limited version on the app-store (demo) and then use some SA credit-card payment gateway to buy a license for the full version.

IMHO, free (with ads) or in-app payments in the best way to go these days. Nobody really buys apps (and if they do, it is on IPhone, much less on Android).

Unless the niche is small enough to warrant buying the app (Google gets 30% of it though), try other strategies.

we have a solid business case for in-app payments and need a merchant account to have this processed.

is there any news on south africa as a valid merchant location?

 

[House]

we have a solid business case for in-app payments and need a merchant account to have this processed.

is there any news on south africa as a valid merchant location?

Unfortunately not, not in the near future as well. Google does not want to give reasons, other than it is a business decision not to allow merchant accounts to South Africans. However, they did say it may be reviewed if the need ever rises.

 

[Vis1/0N]

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/0...-can-now-publish-paid-apps-on-the-play-store/

Belarus, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates.

Sheesh.

 

[zippy]

we have a solid business case for in-app payments and need a merchant account to have this processed.

is there any news on south africa as a valid merchant location?

Its seems that Google believes it doesn't have a solid business case to operate in SA. yet.

 

[Polemus]

Does anyone know of a workaround for this?

 

[Dada]

I am also very interested in this. There has to be a workaround for this, do we perhaps need to get some kind of online petition to sway Google to enable this in South Africa. I find it odd that South Africa is not on the list

 

[TheDarkOne]

What would be the implications of getting a relative to do all the necessary registration from abroad, Australia for example. And I just publish under their account from S.A?

 

[Bryn]

Thread revival:

I'd love to know if anyone here is a Google Play merchant, and how they went about creating their account.

 

[Toothless]

Thread revival:

I'd love to know if anyone here is a Google Play merchant, and how they went about creating their account.

No, Google does not deal with South Africa in this regard due to regulatory issues they have with our exchange acts and control. Chances are 100% that they will never deal with SA too.

Your best option is, as mentioned earlier in this thread, to make use of friends or family living in qualifying countries or to look for businesses who will do this on your behalf and take a huge cut of your income or to sell the app off to someone who can.

Alternatively, you can try to open an offshore bank account and then apply for a credit card with that bank. Then open a Google account using the banks' address.

 

[fabrulana]

Thread revival:

I'd love to know if anyone here is a Google Play merchant, and how they went about creating their account.

I published to Amazon Appstore due to this and made a limited free version available on Google Play pointing to Amazon for full version. Will see how it goes ...

 

[whatwhat]

You can get payments by using an offshore bank account, and link that to the merchant account. If you want to go your own way instead of going through a publisher.

However, if you do that make sure that you publish from a seperate gmail account. Google can, has and will shut you down very quickly if they see you are doing that, and if you were using your personal/corporate/main account then you are pretty ****ed for the weeks it takes to get it sorted out.

 

[Travisza]

I published to Amazon Appstore due to this and made a limited free version available on Google Play pointing to Amazon for full version. Will see how it goes ...

Hi, we are in a similar position....hows it been on the Amazon appstore? Was it easy to set up a South African based account?

 

[AstroTurf]