Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo Forms Global Developer Service Alliance To Take On Google's Play Store

According to sources from Reuters, four Chinese smartphone companies including Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are grouping up to form an alliance called 'GDSA' to take on Google Play Store.

Called "Global Developer Service Alliance" (GDSA), this alliance opens up a new playground for developers, allowing them to bring their apps to the market and users all over the world. Although not officially announced, GDSA's website at https://www.gdsa.com has been relatively complete and revealed a lot of information about this organization.

First, the way GDSA works will not be to create a separate app store to compete directly with the Google Play Store. Instead, users will use the default app store of each manufacturer (such as Oppo App Market or Xiaomi App Store) to download the apps. The difference is that when developers join GDSA, their apps will be simultaneously available on the app store of all members in the organization.

Another noteworthy information posted on this website is the list of countries to which GDSA will be present. Thereby, the platform will not be present in all markets, but also depends on the manufacturer and country. According to information from the website, it will initially be available in 9 countries, including India.

Oddly enough, Huawei's name doesn't appear on the GDSA list, although a Reuters report mentions the manufacturer. In fact, Huawei will be the biggest beneficiary of the new platform after the U.S. ban, preventing Huawei from using Play Store and Google services on its future smartphones. In contrast, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are not affected by this ban.

Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo currently account for more than 40% of the world's smartphone market share. This new organization by these manufacturers can be considered as the most powerful effort to challenge Google's influence on the Android platform. However, the future of this alliance is still relatively unknown, especially when three of the members in the alliance are still in a close relationship with Google.

According to Reuters, GDSA is planned to launch in March, which is less than a month away. However, the outbreak of the coronavirus may affect the initial plan. As of the moment, all four manufacturers have not made or declined to comment.