U cannot sell android games in SA. Merchant account doesn't work. It makes harder for indies to decide pricing on their games... Say you sell on windows phone and iOs where the larger market is android... If you are forced to give something for free on Android, then u must also give it for free on other platforms.
I think the best way is to boycott android, but that campaign can only be possible if all developers agree to boycott... Create something like "Android must fall campaign" ... Only that way google will start taking south African developers seriously.
Have anyone here created android games and sold any via the google play app store.
Yes, several local developers have games available on the Play Store right now. Because you can't set up google merchant accounts for SA businesses, the general approach is either to incorporate a subsidiary business offshore (the UK is popular, but the new Stripe Atlas platform might make the US easier) or to work with a distribution partner overseas. The second option is how we sell Desktop Dungeons on Android.
I think the best way is to boycott android, but that campaign can only be possible if all developers agree to boycott... Create something like "Android must fall campaign" ... Only that way google will start taking south African developers seriously.
This is incredibly short-sighted. I've been working on Google reps for a long time now to try and sort out the issues that are preventing merchant accounts working here in SA (other local devs have been too). Late last year they assigned dev relations people for SA, so if you reach out to them they'll contact you and try to help solve your problems. The more developers we have contacting Google and speaking with their dev relations team, the easier it is for them to motivate for movement with their payment problems with the SARB.
Honestly, getting involved from a positive perspective is much more useful than calling for an ineffectual boycott. Google already takes SA developers seriously, they take us seriously enough to be spending the time talking to the SARB to try and sort out incoming payments in a different way to the PayPal kludge. These are slow processes and I post about them here every time there's progress, if you're not paying attention then at least don't spew negative assumptions without checking first.
Yip, selling on google play store is a problem. I developed an animated wallpaper called Paint Spill that I tried to sell in 2012, it wasn’t a success as I sold less than a 100 copies. I had to get an American partner that was able to register a company for us on the play store. Our agreement was that he gets a cut of all the profits. After this flop, I don’t think that paid products are the way to go, very few people want to pay for things on android. I thing a better model is a free product with in-app advertising, I think there are some add companies that can pay South Africans.
Honestly, getting involved from a positive perspective is much more useful than calling for an ineffectual boycott. Google already takes SA developers seriously, they take us seriously enough to be spending the time talking to the SARB to try and sort out incoming payments in a different way to the PayPal kludge. These are slow processes and I post about them here every time there's progress, if you're not paying attention then at least don't spew negative assumptions without checking first.
Maybe you know the answer to this since you've chatted to them: Why is it more complicated for Google to do it than Microsoft, who has been able to pay South African developers for the last 3 or 4 years..
[quote="dislekcia;40749"]Maybe you know the answer to this since you've chatted to them: Why is it more complicated for Google to do it than Microsoft, who has been able to pay South African developers for the last 3 or 4 years..
Because the mechanisms and systems involved are completely different. I'm not sure how Microsoft pays out, I've never put anything on one of their platforms. Apple pays you directly via swift transfer, as does Steam. Google doesn't, they pay via their merchant account system (at least for apps, for adwords they pay via cheque and have been paying that way for years locally). Said merchant account system doesn't work in SA for the same reason PayPal didn't work, why Stripe still doesn't: They don't supply sufficient information to the SARB for our exchange control laws, and when they try to contact them to supply more info, the SARB treats them as though they're laundering money.
The only reason PayPal works locally is through a partnership with FNB. FNB agrees to accept lump-sum payments from PayPal (and have set up special dispensation with the SARB to make this work) and pays you directly in ZAR. That's why when you do a payment from PayPal in SA you do it via the FNB site and you actually initiate a payment to a "hidden" FNB PayPal account. This isn't the same way that PayPal works for the rest of the world.
Google wants to keep using their automated app payment systems that they've set up globally. Those systems are different to the more manual payments made by Steam and Apple.
[quote="dislekcia;40749"]Maybe you know the answer to this since you've chatted to them: Why is it more complicated for Google to do it than Microsoft, who has been able to pay South African developers for the last 3 or 4 years..
Because the mechanisms and systems involved are completely different. I'm not sure how Microsoft pays out, I've never put anything on one of their platforms. Apple pays you directly via swift transfer, as does Steam. Google doesn't, they pay via their merchant account system (at least for apps, for adwords they pay via cheque and have been paying that way for years locally). Said merchant account system doesn't work in SA for the same reason PayPal didn't work, why Stripe still doesn't: They don't supply sufficient information to the SARB for our exchange control laws, and when they try to contact them to supply more info, the SARB treats them as though they're laundering money.
The only reason PayPal works locally is through a partnership with FNB. FNB agrees to accept lump-sum payments from PayPal (and have set up special dispensation with the SARB to make this work) and pays you directly in ZAR. That's why when you do a payment from PayPal in SA you do it via the FNB site and you actually initiate a payment to a "hidden" FNB PayPal account. This isn't the same way that PayPal works for the rest of the world.
Google wants to keep using their automated app payment systems that they've set up globally. Those systems are different to the more manual payments made by Steam and Apple.
OK, makes sense, thanks!
FWIW, Microsoft pays via a SWIFT transfer to your bank account too. There were some IRS docs that they needed completed but they made a great little system that auto-completes all the fields with what they know about you and you basically just need to digitally sign.
I think the best way is to boycott android, but that campaign can only be possible if all developers agree to boycott... Create something like "Android must fall campaign" ... Only that way google will start taking south African developers seriously.
I also believe that Google should allow for South African developers to sell apps and iaps, but if we are going to do something about it, we should never take such an immature route of doing it. The real problem is South Africa here. All we can do is wait, and support ongoing campaigns: Here is an example, that I suggest everyone reading this take part. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/add-south-africa-to-the-google-merchant-list
PS: In my game, I am making money through apple iaps, but on google play I had to create a message indicating that south africans are not allowed to make money, if you do that with your apps, I am sure sometime, people will start to complain...
Google is well aware of the problem and are trying to address it. It is not that they don't want to allow merchant account, it is just that if they do they would be committing a criminal offense. Google along with a bunch of other people are trying to address this issue but realise that changing close to a hundred year old law that has been the corner stone of our international monetary exchange policy is not going to happen in a few months or even years.
Admob pays out directly to you (in the same way that Steam or Apple does) so it by-passes the problems in the exchange control regulations. The Google Merchant account works differently (they pay into a wallet which then pays out to you). it is this aspect that causes the issue
Comments
I think the best way is to boycott android, but that campaign can only be possible if all developers agree to boycott... Create something like "Android must fall campaign" ... Only that way google will start taking south African developers seriously.
Honestly, getting involved from a positive perspective is much more useful than calling for an ineffectual boycott. Google already takes SA developers seriously, they take us seriously enough to be spending the time talking to the SARB to try and sort out incoming payments in a different way to the PayPal kludge. These are slow processes and I post about them here every time there's progress, if you're not paying attention then at least don't spew negative assumptions without checking first.
The only reason PayPal works locally is through a partnership with FNB. FNB agrees to accept lump-sum payments from PayPal (and have set up special dispensation with the SARB to make this work) and pays you directly in ZAR. That's why when you do a payment from PayPal in SA you do it via the FNB site and you actually initiate a payment to a "hidden" FNB PayPal account. This isn't the same way that PayPal works for the rest of the world.
Google wants to keep using their automated app payment systems that they've set up globally. Those systems are different to the more manual payments made by Steam and Apple.
FWIW, Microsoft pays via a SWIFT transfer to your bank account too. There were some IRS docs that they needed completed but they made a great little system that auto-completes all the fields with what they know about you and you basically just need to digitally sign.
The real problem is South Africa here. All we can do is wait, and support ongoing campaigns: Here is an example, that I suggest everyone reading this take part.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/add-south-africa-to-the-google-merchant-list
PS:
In my game, I am making money through apple iaps, but on google play I had to create a message indicating that south africans are not allowed to make money, if you do that with your apps, I am sure sometime, people will start to complain...