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Today, the Android platform receives more app downloads than iOS, but the Apple App Store consistently dominates in terms of revenue. Now, Google is looking to reduce the revenue gap by offering emerging market users a new way to pay for applications: with money. The company today announced the launch of "pending transactions" offering users different payment methods that do not require a credit card or any other form of traditional online payment.
Lack of access to credit is one of the many reasons why emerging market users prefer free and ad-supported games and applications, instead of paid downloads and in-app purchases.
To solve this problem, Google has already rolled out other payment options over the years, such as support for ePortfolios, UPI in India and operator billing, for example. Over the past year, 20 additional billing partnerships have been added, bringing the total number of operators supporting this option worldwide to more than 170, reaching more than $ 1 billion worldwide. users with this billing option.
But operator billing is not a universal option, and it is not always preferred.
To reach users who rely more on money, Google now offers another payment option.
"We know that emerging markets are a vital growth area for all of you, which is why we are delighted to announce" pending trades, "" said Aurash Mahbod, director of the company. Engineering responsible for the Play Store and games on Google Play. speaking at the Google I / O Developer Conference today.
"This is a new category of deferred payment methods, such as cash, bank transfers and direct debits," he explained.
The option gives an Android user the option to choose another payment method when paying when paying an application or an in-app purchase. Instead of billing an attached credit card, for example, the user can choose to receive a payment code that he can use to pay for his cash purchase at a nearby store.
Once at the store, the user shows the cashier's payment code and pays. Within 10 minutes of the transaction, the user will receive his purchase and an email with his proof of payment. (The fine print may sometimes take up to 48 hours).
While it makes it easy to pay for apps and updates for Android users who only pay for cash, they will not receive Play Store credit to get their money back later.
The Pending Transactions option is one of many updates arriving in the new Google Play Billing Library (version 2.0), but it is the most interesting in terms of increasing the number of paid transactions in emerging markets.
Another notable update is the option "Subscribe & Install", which offers users a free trial subscription at the same time as they install the application, all in one go. click.
This feature is currently available in Advance Access and partners who have used this option are recording an average growth of 34% in the number of paying subscribers, Google said.
The Google Play 2.0 Billing Library, now the official way to integrate apps with Google Play Billing, is now available in Java. The C ++ and Kotlin versions will be available soon.
More information on the new options will be posted on the Android Developers site here.
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