Major smartphone manufacturers in China have banded together to create a new app platform to challenge the dominance of Alphabet's Google Play Store. Huawei, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Oppo have announced that they will be working together to combine their respective online app stores and essentially share the same platform for local and overseas developers.
The proposed new platform, tentatively called the Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA), is currently still in development with the four companies collaborating to iron out all of its kinks. The goal will be to make the platform a one-stop-shop for mobile services such as apps, games, music, and movies specifically for Android smartphones.
According to sources close to the matter, the four companies are aiming to launch the new platform sometime in March this year. However, it is not yet clear if that goal can be achieved given the current state of affairs in China. The four companies have launched a prototype website that showcases some of the features of the platform. The website also revealed that the platform will initially be launched in select regions, which include China, Russia, Indonesia, and India.
The trade dispute between China and the United States had resulted in the so-called technological cold war between both nations last year. The sanctions imposed by both nations effectively blocked the sharing of technologies, resulting in the pullout of Google's services from China.
The company's Google Play was the de-facto default app store for the Android operating system for past decade. However, due to the dispute and the ban on Google services, Chinese smartphone manufacturers had been forced to come up with their own app stores and mobile services.
Despite forced Google to pull out its services in China, the company still managed to pull around $8.8 billion in earnings globally last year. Apart from the distribution of mobile apps, Google's platform also sells other content such as e-books, movies, and other productivity tools.
The new Chinese alliance hopes to do more of the same by combining their resources and know-how to come up with a competitive platform for Android smartphones. Analysts have pointed out that each of the companies has its own unique advantages in different regions.
Xiaomi currently has a strong user base in India, while Vivo and Oppo have a strong presence in the rest of Southeast Asia. Huawei on the other hand already has a strong presence in Europe, while also having years of experience in developing mobile platforms.
