Google announces Play Store merchant support for developers in China

Google, in its continued effort to support developers and users from all across the world, announced today that developers in China are now be able to list both free and paid apps on the Play Store. The company made the announcement via a post on the official Android Developer Blog, saying that the addition of China means that developers can now sign up to be merchants in more than 60 countries. Users in more than 130 countries can purchase apps those apps, as well.

As part of that continued effort, we’re excited to announce merchant support in China, enabling local developers to export and sell their apps to Google Play users in more than 130 countries. Chinese developers can now offer both free and paid applications through various monetization models, including in-app purchasing and subscriptions. For revenue generated on Google Play, developers will receive payment to their Chinese bank accounts via USD wire transfers.

Google says that developers in China can offer both free and paid apps with in-app purchase and subscription support. Revenue generated by those payment methods will be deposited directly into the developer’s Chinese bank account via USD wire transfers.

As Chinese Android users know, however, the Google Play Store itself is still not available in China. This means that Chinese Android developers are selling their apps to users in more than 130 other countries, but not China. Google made no indication in its blog post that the Play Store is coming to China, although today’s announcement could be a step in the right direction.

Interested developers in China should visit the Publish page on the Google Play Store and register as a developer. For those looking to sell apps, you’ll also need to sign up for a Google Wallet merchant account, which you can do by visiting the Revenue page of the Google Play Developer Console. Once you’ve uploaded your apps, you can set prices via the Developer Console.