I had a unique opportunity to visit Google HQ in Mountain View and represent India in this newly formed Google Developer Ecosystem Feedback Summit. This summit is an attempt by Google to understand the needs of Android developers and their suggestions to improve Google in their respective regions.
This summit was attended by 10 Mobile App ecosystem representatives from countries like Japan, Korea, Thailand, South Africa, Mexico, Israel, Canada & Europe in addition to myself from India & from their side by some top Product Managers of several Google products like Adwords, Play Store, Cloud Test, Analytics et al.
The whole summit was spread over 2 days and we were treated with Google’s signature hospitality. I am summarizing the core discussion points and issues identified by everyone & acknowledged by Google.
On Day 2, Google shared some really exciting developments which will fundamentally solve most of the issues faced by Android Developers.
Unfortunately, that was shared under the NDA so I will refrain from talking about that.
Here is what came up as top discussion points:
Fragmentation — The no.1 issue which affects the whole developer community is the fragmentation and slow adoption of latest OS versions. Android One was Google’s attempt to control the damage, but that seems to have not taken off in an expected manner. Google might make another solid attempt at it. They have recently launched Cloud Test Lab to help developers in getting their App tested from real testers on several physical handsets.
Data discrepancy — Today an Android developer gets its data from Play Store consoles, Google Analytics, 3rd Party Attribution tools, Adwords, Webmaster Tools and none of it matches with another.
Documentation — Some of their releases across various products are not supported by comprehensive documentation. Google believes that there is a scope for improvement there.
Piracy & Malware — Fundamental issue with Play Store where several clones & malware Apps keep appearing due to lax pre-launch QA by Google. This has changed recently and Google pre-scans many Apps before they get released.
App Monetization — We all know how India, which is at no. 3 in terms of downloads, figures nowhere when it comes to revenues. This was discussed extensively and ideas like local payment option, micro pricing keeping the PPP in mind, tie-ups, user’s incentives etc. was presented.
Adwords vs Facebook — Adwords/Admob today face stiff competition from Facebook for App acquisition campaigns. Constantly increasing cost of a click & lesser scale as compared to FB was discussed briefly.
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Play Store — India being their fastest growing Android market, I suggested ideas like adding country (Made in India) as a filter in Overall Top Free & Grossing to highlight locally developed apps more. Everyone urged Google to be more transparent about its policy for featuring an App. The “App Beta tester” was another idea mooted to allow app developers to distribute apps among selected beta testers deputed by Google countrywide.
More ideas like starting an App Developer Fund allowing startups to get free credits for Adwords to try acquisition campaigns was discussed.
Adwords for Play Store timelines for India are still not clear and it looks like we are still several months away from it.
This summit clearly signified how Google is getting prepared for the next round. Its openness to criticism, ideas, suggestions is praise worthy and it’s a sign of a winning company
I will be happy to hear your feedback on this. Feel free to comment here or tag me on twitter @deepakabbot or mail me at dabbot@gmail.com
Signing off with some photographs from the event and lovely Googleplex
