The homegrown app store, One Store, has been enjoying soaring sales thanks to a rapid increase of new app releases, including game apps of major game developers, the company said Thursday.
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Main page of One Store |
The accomplishment of the No.3 app store in the market, which has been dominated by Google and Apple, is drawing keen attention on whether this could lead to market diversification and break the duopoly of the global giants that force companies to pay the 30 percent commission.
One Store is an Android app store run by mobile carriers SK Telecom, KT, LG Uplus and tech company Naver. SK Telecom's stake in One Store is about 65 percent.
One Store said its turnover increased by 15 percent, and the number of new apps released there rose by 30 percent last month, compared to June before the new distribution policies were enacted.
"As Google and Apple still receive the 30 percent commission from companies, game firms and other startups are gathering in One Store," an official from One Store said.
The firm announced the new policies on July 4 in a bid to attract more app developers.
Following the measures, the nation's leading game firms, which have been focusing on releasing their game apps on Google Play and Apple App Store, are responding very positively, actively supporting changes sought by the homegrown app store, said One Store.
The largest game company Nexon released "Kaiser" at the end of last month after the release of "FIFA Online 4."
"We are currently in talks with another game company, which has had no deals with us, to release a new game app," the official said. "Previously, game firms released their apps in Google and Apple first and then came to us, but an increasing number of game firms are now releasing apps in all stores at the same time."
The company noted 30 percent to 60 percent of game companies' sales have been created in One Store for the recent two months, stressing it can be construed that game firms could create an additional 15 percent of profits when releasing their games in One Store, considering commissions they have to pay to Google or Apple.
The company said the number of paid users in One Store has increased by about 9 percent for the two consecutive months, attempting to remove concerns that the app store has a relatively small number of users compared to Google or Apple.
It added that game developers can simply release their apps, which are in One Store, in the Samsung Galaxy Apps store on Galaxy smartphones thanks to its alliance.