How to Sell Apps on GP if I'm from "Unsupported" Country?

Hello,

I’m from Slovenia and currently there is now way for me to sell apps on Google Play. However, a friend of mine lives in Austria, which is a “supported” country. He doesn’t make apps or anything, but could he open a Google Play Developer account, on which I would sell my apps? I would publish free, ad supported app on my account, but if a user would want the full version, there would be a link to his account. Is this even allowed? If not, I could publish both free, and payable apps on his account.

Thanks and kind regards.

ahhhh… i also have this kind of dilema :frowning:
why google not supported all country? hhhh

Hi! I don’t know about your country, but my country is extremely aggressive with taxes, and they want to squeeze every penny and then some out of you. I don’t believe we will be eligible any time soon. If if we become eligible, I expect them to tax the income from apps as speculative and take 40% from profits. :slight_smile: I’m kidding, but I would not be surprised, if this happened.

Ask your friend to create a Google Merchant account and send money to his account. You’ll have some problems though:
If you earn a lot, then your friend needs to pay taxes for it.
If google finds out about it your account may get banned. (mostly won’t happen)

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. I’ll think about.

Same problem here… i am from Chile, so you can imagine it seems like i am in a looong queue… Anyone knows any information about the integration of new countries? i email them but didnt get any response…

Larry Page was asked about it at the Google I/O (watch it, he gave an interesting speech) but gave a vague response that “they are working on it”.

I will look up his speech, thanks for sharing.

By the way, what about Amazon? Can we sell there? I didn’t take time to read all their developer documents - probably because I get only a fraction of traffic from what I get on Google.

I was able to sell on Amazon when I wasn’t yet on Google Play, so you should check it out. But I didn’t get much sells there.

You can sell in samsung store… and you shouldnt worry so much that you cant sell. Almost all devs here who is able to sale in market, they dont make money on it. They put apps in market for free with ads, for a specific “reason” that we all know.

Would google ban us for using our friend’s merchant account?

I have the same problem here (I’m from Indonesia, i believe it’s further down in the queue :slight_smile: ). In my case, i have a cousin live in USA (he is a USA citizen). I’m thinking of asking him to create Google Play developer account and google merchant account and acting as the publisher my app while setting the developer name as my development studio’s name (ex: xxx studio). He will get some percentage from sales for his publishing service. However, i wonder if this is a legal approach. Would i get some trouble for doing this? Do my cousin need to set up a business structure (sole trader)? And how about tax? Will he only need to pay tax for his percentage? Or will he need to pay tax for the whole revenue then sending me my percentage? (I have to admit that my knowledge about business and tax law is limited).

I also wonder if having a Bank account in supported country is enough. If so, I’ll just create a bank account in Singapore and i won’t need my cousin to act as a publisher for my apps.

Its completely legal. We are not trying to hide any money here.

He needs to pay tax for the whole revenue.

Yes, having a Bank account in supported country is enough I guess. Just use that bank account to setup your Merchant account. (Didn’t try it myself so try it yourself and see)

So my cousin will need to pay for sales tax and income tax, give me my percentage from the rest (net revenue). But will I need to pay income tax again in my country (double taxation)?

I don’t know about that. You should take help of someone else regarding that.

what about the incoming transition from Google checkout to Google wallet? do you think that may open the window for the unsupported countries?
Google Commerce: An update to Google Checkout for merchants

One option is to abandon Android and develop for Apple (though Android has potential in the long-run will outdo Apple) - since Apple does support payment to developers (in-app payments etc.) from more countries.

Android should experience a very big boom in coming months or a year - though this boom will happen from the third world - as Android devices will start to invade the ultra-cheap mobile segment. Which means that the huge mass of “average folks” will be starting to taste the “smart phone” environment pretty soon.

That should be HUGE in terms of numbers from the third world.

Though this effect is already being reported by others for China etc.

My coutry wasnt eligible, so my friend who stays in australia made one for me, and its working perfectly…!

Another option maybe to sell the app on Amazon App Store - and then tell users on Google Play that there is a paid version available if they get it from Amazon App Store.

The problem is that Google Play does not offer the Amazon App Store on Google Play - which means added steps for user to download that first directly from Amazon etc.

HOWEVER, I just noticed that the Amazon real-products app - which IS available on Google Play - DOES have apps as well !! I see some android apps listed there !

Now this seems MUCH better - however practically, how would a non-amazon Android user download this - they pay and they get to download the APK - and then install it with “Unknown Sources” turned off or what ? That is, user still goes through some complicated process ?

I’m already selling some apps on Amazon, which is a better platform for selling anyway (so they say…). I can’t remember where I’ve read this, but Amazon’s conversion rate is supposedly 4 times better, and it’s true, that a few guys I know have much more sales on Amazon than on Google. I would not mind selling on GP at all, but until I won’t have a game with in-app purchasing, I won’t be looking for a joint venture. :slight_smile:

But yeah, it has crossed my mind finding someone in a “supported country”, but I don’t know how would they deal with taxes etc. I just hope that the banana country I live in gets compliant ASAP.

So when you sell an app on Amazon - is that for Kindle Fire only ? That means you have to be aware that the devices will be ones without phones, or phone related stuff like light sensor/proximity sensor etc. ?

Or was your intent to sell to Google Play users VIA the Amazon App ? How is the conversion on that - I suspect it would be very bad because of the added steps required ?