It has been over eight years since Android devices launched in South Africa, and Google still doesn’t allow local developers to sell their apps.<\/p>\n
When the first Android smartphones from HTC launched in SA in 2009, Google\u2019s official app marketplace was not available locally.<\/p>\n
This was rectified by the distributor for HTC products at the time, Leaf International Communications.<\/p>\n
However, access to paid-for applications was blocked for years, until Google put the necessary systems in place to bill South Africans for apps and services.<\/p>\n
In this regard, Android was not unique. iPhone users could also only access a limited subset of the App Store and iTunes, but it was trivial to \u201ctrick\u201d Apple into letting you buy from the US store.<\/p>\n
By 2012, both iOS and Android supported purchases in rand.<\/p>\n
Apple also allowed South African developers to list their iOS apps and charge money for them. Google has still not done this for Android developers.<\/p>\n
The companies’ streaming music subscription services are also available in South Africa. In fact, South Africa was one of the launch countries for Apple Music.<\/p>\n
Google has also had to deal with the FPB and other bureaucracy unique to our market to launch its products here.<\/p>\n
Yet, after all these years, Google has not made it possible for South African developers to charge for their apps – as local merchant registration is not supported.<\/p>\n
You can upload your app and make it available for free, no problem. If you want to sell it, or use in-app purchases, you will have to make an alternative plan.<\/p>\n
Pieter Loubser, the founder of Inventit, is one example of developers who took matters into their own hands.<\/p>\n
Loubser has developed mobile applications and games since the days of Mxit, and in 2015 he decided to port one of his early game concepts to Android.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe original reason behind this game idea was to help young people understand the basics of how the economy works,\u201d said Loubser.<\/p>\n
Loubser said he thought he could port the game in six months if he worked at it full-time.<\/p>\n
In the end, he lived off his savings for 14 months. With the assistance of a friend, he was able to launch the first version of the game in September 2016.<\/p>\n
To monetise it, Loubser said he had to jump through hoops.<\/p>\n
He was forced to create a UK entity for his company, which he used to open a bank account in London. It took two months to set it up, said Loubser.<\/p>\n
There was a lot of legal and administrative work, as the UK also has a FICA-like system you must comply with to open an account.<\/p>\n
To set up the entity and open the account cost R9,000 – essentially all of the revenue the app earned in its first four months on the store.<\/p>\n
“But help from Google is nonexistent, though they take 30% of all revenue,” said Loubser.<\/p>\n
Currently, Loubser’s game\u00a0Farm Wars<\/a><\/strong> has over 1,000 installs from Google Play and a rating of 4.7 out of 5 . It uses a freemium model, with in-app purchases available.<\/p>\n African countries which support Google Play merchant registration<\/strong><\/a> include Egypt and Nigeria.<\/p>\n It has been over eight years since Android devices launched in South Africa, and Google still doesn’t allow local developers to sell their apps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":148819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[397,605,44574,167,35,403,44572,1125,44570],"class_list":["post-219750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-android","tag-apple","tag-farm-wars","tag-google","tag-headline","tag-htc","tag-inventit","tag-iphone","tag-pieter-loubser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219750"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220246,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219750\/revisions\/220246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: Most popular downloads on Google Play in South Africa<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"