Love it or hate it, Google controls many technologies, services, and platforms you use daily. And as time goes by, it seems like the competition is losing more ground against the giant.
Take the Google Play Store, for example. No matter the phone brand you are a fan of, you likely use the Play Store as your primary – or, in some cases, the only – place where you acquire new apps for your Android device. That is, assuming your phone isn't from a brand that Google barred from accessing the Play Store, such as Huawei.
Needless to say, not many tech giants can challenge Google, but Samsung did exactly that earlier this week. It's quite refreshing to see, to say the least, especially from the perspective of an avid Galaxy device user.
Samsung's genius strategy to compete with Google
Samsung opened the virtual doors to its Android app store, the Galaxy Store, 15 years ago. It's available exclusively to Galaxy device users and offers apps, games, Galaxy themes, and more.
While many Samsung customers rely on the Galaxy Store for updates to numerous Samsung apps, it's safe to say that the Play Store stands front and center.
We always thought that Samsung needed a bold and clever strategy to attract more users to the Galaxy Store and pull them away from the Play Store. After many years, Samsung appears to be challenging Google in this regard through a genius two-pronged strategy it unveiled in full earlier this week.
Want access to Galaxy Store? See the latest Galaxy phone offers
To be precise, the first part of the strategy unfolded last year when Samsung launched a cloud-based service for Galaxy Store mobile games. The cloud platform is available only in the USA for the moment, but offers two huge advantages over the Play Store:
- Being cloud-based, the Gaming Hub platform exposes more Galaxy device users to high-quality games by negating lengthy download times and premium hardware requirements.
- In turn, Gaming Hub helps game developers and publishers get better exposure, as users are much more inclined to try more games as long as they are easy to obtain via the cloud.
The second part of Samsung's clever strategy will come into play on May 15. And it's a bold one! To maximize the Galaxy Store's chances of success, Samsung kept an ace up its sleeve, which it revealed earlier this week.
Beginning May 15, Samsung will take less money from app developers and publishers. Where Google follows a 70/30 revenue share model, Samsung will soon implement an 80/20 model.
In other words, developers and publishers on the Galaxy Store will earn more from apps and in-app purchases, consumables, and Galaxy themes purchased using Samsung Checkout. Samsung will only retain 20% of net sales proceeds instead of Google's 30%.
Combined with the cloud-gaming technologies mentioned above, this friendlier revenue model could really put the spotlight on the Galaxy Store and away from Google's Play Store.
I view this two-pronged strategy as one of Samsung's most genius moves, and I am very excited to see where it leads. I believe it might be one of the most critical changes for Samsung in 2025 — a change that could create ripples across the Android landscape.
If only those Gaming Hub cloud-based mobile gaming technologies would come to more markets outside the USA, this could have massive ramifications for the app store landscape. But we will have to wait for that.
Finally, even if Samsung's Galaxy Store doesn't beat the Play Store anytime soon, this bold strategy might at least push Google to offer a better revenue deal to app developers and publishers on the Play Store. No matter how we look at it, everybody wins. Bravo, Samsung!
