RuStore has become closer to people

RuStore has become closer to people



RuStore developers allowed private app creators to publish in the store. Previously, in order to be placed on the site, it was necessary to register an individual entrepreneur or legal entity and issue an electronic signature. Opening RuStore to individuals could help Russian indie game creators spend less time preparing for their release, experts say. At the same time, they note that the quality of the payment infrastructure is also important for small developers.

Developers-individuals got the opportunity to place applications for Android in the RuStore store, reported "Kommersant" in the press service of VK (store operator). The form for registering individuals in RuStore appeared on the store's website. Developers are requested to provide their personal and contact details, VK ID account and TIN. The company warned that it may require verification of the applicant: for this, you will need to call a VK representative via video link and show your passport and face to the camera.

The preliminary version of RuStore was released in May. Until recently, only legal entities and individual entrepreneurs could upload applications to the catalog, they also require an enhanced qualified electronic signature (ECES). The cost of its issue ranges from 1.5 thousand to 2 thousand rubles, says Galina Gamburg, head of the property relations practice at Amulex.ru. According to her, many entrepreneurs do not register as individual entrepreneurs, because “they are afraid of bureaucratic difficulties associated with reporting. The VK press service clarified to Kommersant that individuals who wish to place applications in RuStore do not need an electronic signature. This is not the first decision by VK to attract private developers to its distribution sites: a month earlier, the company opened registration for individuals on the VK Play video game platform.

VK’s decision to allow individuals to publish is a big step towards the indie games market, “which is now hard on all sides,” says rawg.io founder Gadzhi Makhtiev.

He expects that there will be more and more individual developers over time: “This will reduce the time from product readiness to release, primarily due to the lack of the need to create a legal form for the company.”

Many specialists work alone or as a group of individuals, adds Vasily Ovchinnikov, developer of the PvP.Tools platform: “One or two national application stores, with due diligence and marketing, will be able to attract them for publication in the home market.” At the same time, he noted that both for people working alone and for companies, issues related to the integration of payment services, the possibility of analytics, promotion and purchase of traffic, as well as low commissions and high speed of transferring funds are important. When asked whether individuals will be able to use the RuStore payment infrastructure launched in August, the company replied that they continue to work on expanding functionality: “Issues of subscriptions, in-app purchases (IAP) and comfortable work with tax payments are in the field of our interests.”

The procedure for registering individuals in RuStore seems to be more based on organizational compliance than Apple and Google with their own stores, says Pavel Golub, co-founder of the digital platform development company Arcsinus: “It gives the potential opportunity to transfer risks to a specific person.” In his opinion, VK, by checking the developer's passport and identity, wants to make sure that "nothing unlicensed and illegal does not enter the store." Global platforms provide this protection, as a rule, in a simpler way: they simplify registration as much as possible, but carefully check each downloaded application or update, Mr. Golub concludes.

Yuri Litvinenko



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