Investigation into Google App Market
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) launched an investigation into Google's alleged abuse of app market dominance. In particular, the FTC is checking whether or not Google requested Korean game developers to release their games on Google's app store "Play Store" only.
According to the mobile app industry, on April 15, the FTC is currently conducting a survey of Korean mobile game developers and distributorson fair trade on mobile game distribution platforms. It is said that the FTC is intensively looking into whether there were Android games that were released via only one among Google Play Store and the One Store created by the three Korean mobile careers and Naver. The FCT reportedly confirmed whether or not employees of an app market requested game developers not to register their games in other app markets and whether or not game developers received special favors or disadvantages with respect to the matter.
Although the FTC did not explicitly state that they would investigate Google's abuse of market dominance, it seems that the FTC inquired whether or not Google committed unfair trade practices as the FTC caught some circumstantial evidence of Google’s violations of law. In fact, NCsoft's Lineage M and Netmarble’s Lineage 2 Revolution, which ranked first and second in sales of mobile games last year, were released in Google’sPlay Store and Apple's App Store but not in One Store. PlayStore enjoyed a market share of 61.2 percent, which is subject to monopoly regulations.
Meanwhile, Google's AI home speaker, Google Home, is expected to land in Korea soon after receiving a radio certificate from the Korean government. Google Home and Google Home Minipassed a radio certification testat the National Radio Research Agency on April 6 and 10, respectively. Since radio certification is usually conducted when a product is close toits launch, both products will be released in the Korean market in the first half of the year.