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Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi join forces to challenge Play Store monopoly (Update)
July 21, 2025
Update: July 11, 2025 at 1:32 p.m. ET:A Xiaomi representative contactedAndroid Authoritywith a comment on the GDSA news. Apparently, Xiaomi’s goal with joining the group isn’t meant to create competition with Google — it’s simply meant to make developers’ lives easier when uploading to multiple app stores from other manufacturers.
Read the full comment below:
Original article: June 22, 2025 at 7:42 a.m. ET:TheUS trade banagainst HUAWEI means it’s unable to use the Google Play Store and other Google services on new devices. The Chinese brand is already spending money to bring third-party apps to itsAppGallery, and it now looks like other heavyweight Chinese manufacturers are joining forces with it.
Reutersreports thatHuawei,Oppo,Vivo, andXiaomihave teamed up to let foreign developers upload apps onto all of their app stores at the same time.
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Nationsspecifically namedon the website include India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Spain, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. However, the documentation shows that paid app support varies by OEM and nation (with Spain missing).
A new one-stop shop for developers?
“The Global Developer Service Alliance is committed to providing one-stop services including content distribution, development support, marketing operation, brand promotion and traffic monetization to global developers,” reads an excerpt of the website’s “About” section.
The alliance’s terms and conditions section also gives us more details on how the initiative will actually work:
Furthermore, the section notes that developers can choose to use the advertising monetization SDK provided by the alliance, getting better or more promotion spots as a result.
Sources toldReutersthat the initiative was due to launch in March, but it’s unclear whether the coronavirus threat will result in a delayed launch.
The alliance represents three out of the top five global players today, according toCanalysandCounterpoint Research(vivo is at number six). Nicole Peng, vice-president of mobility at Canalys, tells the newswire that the brands could leverage each company’s regional popularity. For example, developers publishing to Xiaomi’s app store in India would theoretically get published on other OEM app stores as well.
We’ve contacted Xiaomi, OPPO, and HUAWEI for more details regarding the story, but await OPPO’s response. HUAWEI and Xiaomi, however, refused to comment on the matter.
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