Editor at TechForge Media. Often sighted at global tech conferences with a coffee in one hand and laptop in the other. If it's geeky, I'm probably into it.











Today, Google has announced the ability for Chinese developers to launch both their free and paid apps to more than 130 other countries who have access to the Play Store. The only caveat is that, although merchant support has launched, citizens are still unable to access it themselves.

If you develop Android apps in China, and want to start distributing your apps to a global audience through Google Play, visit here to register as a developer. If you want to sell apps and in-app products, you’ll need to also sign up for a Google Wallet merchant account which is available on the “Revenue” page in the Google Play Developer Console.

We’ll be watching with close interest as to whether many China-based developers venture out of their country

Chinese developers will receive payment to their bank accounts via wire transfer in US dollars. If you’re a developer based in the US or other market with access to the Play Store, you still won’t be able to launch your app in China without use of one of the country’s vast amount of confusing app stores such as Qihoo 360, Tencent, Wandoujia, and others…

In an interview with Kii, DeveloperTech discussed how their “Kii to China” localisation experts help developers to get around China’s unique barriers. Some of the hurdles to overcome include; circumventing the “Great Firewall” and reducing latency issues, China-specific in-app purchases and advertising rules, language translation, conforming / optimising for cultural differences, and finding the best app store(s) to launch in for the best visibility and monetisation.

We’ll be watching with close interest as to whether many China-based developers venture out of their country and release apps around the globe. If you are one, please get in touch, we would love to speak to you regarding your thoughts on Play Store merchant support in China.

For Chinese readers, or those fluent in the language, here’s Google’s announcement:

中国开发者可以向全球130个国家的Google Play用户提供付费应用啦 发表者：Ellie Powers, Google Play产品经理 Google Play是一个可让Android用户发现和购买他们喜爱的移动应用程序和游戏的全球最大的应用商店，这个生态系统在全球迅速成长。过去一年中，我们已经扩展到60个国家，让应用程序开发人员可以注册成为 Google Play的商家，其中新近支持的国家包括黎巴嫩、约旦、阿曼、巴基斯坦、波多黎各、卡塔尔和委内瑞拉。 作为持续改进 Google Play努力的一部分，我们很高兴地宣布在中国增加了对商家的支持，让中国的开发者能售卖应用程序到130个国家的 Google Play 用户。中国的开发者现在可以提供通过各种盈利模式的免费和付费应用，包括应用内购买和订阅。在 Google Play 产生的营收将通过美元电汇的方式支付给开发者的中国的银行账户。 如果你在中国开发Android应用程序，并希望通过 Google Play 把应用程序推广到全球，请登录play.google.com/apps/publish 并建立你的 Google Play 开发者账户。如果你想售卖付费的应用程序和应用程序内的产品，则需要再注册一个Google 电子钱包商家帐户，通过Google Play开发者控制台里的”营收”页面进行设置。上传应用程序后，你可以通过开发者控制台设定价格，之后就可以收到营收报告，你将会通过电汇的方式获得收入。 我们将继续增加更多 Google Play 商家支持的国家，敬请关注。 更多详情，请访问我们的开发者帮助中心。

Google execs are said to be in talks with potential partners and the Chinese government in the hope of launching Google Play services in Mainland China. Facebook and Twitter continue to face similar issues in the country, but many citizens have found ways to bypass the Great Firewall which blocks these services in order to access them and leverage their large networks to reach customers and perform business overseas.

Do you think Play Store merchant support in China could lead to a full launch? Let us know in the comments.

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