Dubai: The Middle East and North Africa (Mena) is an important market for Goggle Play and presents a huge growth opportunity, its director said.
Mark Bennett, Director of Google Play for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), was speaking at the one-day “Google Play | Connect” event for global apps and games developers interested in expanding to the high-growth region.
Many app developers from the US, Lebanon and China attended the event.
Bennett said that Android powers more screens that empower more people. An estimated 87 per cent of Mena’s smartphones run the Android system while 79 per cent of EMEA’s smartphones run Android.
He said that it is a good opportunity for the developers to learn more about these markets and explore opportunities to partner to create and localise amazing apps and games that work for the local market.
In 2014, 1.4 billion Android devices were shipped globally, which means that one in every five people on Earth now has an Android smartphone.
Over 57 million smartphones were shipped in Mena in 2015, which is more smartphones than France and the UK combined. It also represents 15 per cent of all smartphones shipped in EMEA.
With 400 original equipment manufacturers and 500 carriers developing apps for Android, he said that Google has paid more than $7 billion (Dh25.71 billion) to developers in 2014. 50 billion apps were downloaded in 2014.
Mohamad Mourad, regional director for Google Mena, urged app developers to focus on the region as the average median age is 25 years and the youth are tech savvy as compared to the average median age in Europe of 41 years.
The import and export of “digital content” is growing in the region and YouTube has got one of the highest levels of consumption in the region despite internet penetration of just 50 per cent.
Mourad said that the usage of apps in the region stood at 10 per cent of the global usage.
Moreover, Google and telco operators are collaborating together to make it easier for app downloaders who don’t have a credit card by offering a direct billing facility.
Khaldoun Nimer, director of Marketing — Digital and Mobile Content Services at etisalat, said that the operator has seen a 200 per cent growth in monthly revenue from Google Play.
He said the average revenue per user in the Middle East is just over $10 compared to about $28 in the UAE.
