The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) of the South Korean government has launched an investigation into Google. The reason was complaints that an American corporation is forcing local mobile developers to sell their games only through Google Play.
According to The Korea Herald newspaper, the FTC is interviewing representatives of the country’s game studios to find out whether Google required them to “launch games only in certain app stores” and “not launch their games in other appstores.”
The FTC is also investigating whether Google applied any sanctions to studios that released their titles somewhere other than Google Play.
Google Play is the dominant platform for mobile applications in South Korea. 90% of the country’s population uses Android smartphones.
According to a report by the Korean Mobile Business Association, Google Play accounted for 60.7% of all mobile app sales in South Korea in 2017.
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