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South Korea: KFTC investigates Google Play over marketplace abuse

By  |  April 17, 2018

Google Play is currently under investigation by the South Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). It appears the ubiquitous marketplace could have been abusing its position to pressure game developers to launch their games exclusively on the Google Play platform. With allegations on the horizon, the KFTC has to do its due diligence and investigate said claims.

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    The Korea Herald reported that the KFTC has been interviewing mobile game studios in a bid to determine if there’s any truth to the claims levied against Google Play. The organization has been asking specifically if Google asked them to either “launch their games only through specific app marketplaces” or to “not launch their games via other app marketplaces.” Neither is an acceptable practice, so this is likely going to produce some interesting results when the surveys are completed.

    For South Korea, where more than 90% of the population uses mobile devices running on Google’s Android operating system, Google Play dominates the app marketplace ecosystem.

    Apple’s App Store accounted for 24.5%, while One Store, jointly operated by Korea’s three carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus and portal website operator Naver, accounted for 11.6%, according to the report.

    The KFTC’s investigation came after major mobile games, including NCSoft’s “Lineage M” and Netmarble Games’ “Lineage 2 Revolution”, were launched in Korea last year via Google Play and Apple’s App Store, but not One Store.

    Full Content: Korea Herald

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