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Google Wallet: Your country South Africa is unsupported for this merchant.

ZaphireZaphire
in Questions and Answers
Does anyone know how to be able to legally get google IAP and if not what is the best alternative.

I have read that the following is not legal
*Registering under another country
*Using other IAP such as PayPal and Amazon (if game is on google play)

How does other South-African game developers get past this?

Comments

  • CodeCthulhuCodeCthulhu
    We had the same issue. Seems there aren't really any ways around it.
    Our business account at FNB allowed us to open a bank account in the Isle of Man, but since we had no one resident we couldn't use that for Google IAP.

    Luckily, but business partners wife is a UK citizen, and she opened an account for us on that side.
    Perhaps if you would like to get some details / make an arrangement with us feel free to PM me.
  • ZaphireZaphire
    How legal is it to have a person in UK just be the holder of the account?

    Would I have to register another developer account that is based in UK or something?
  • petrcpetrc
    Having the merchant wallet in another country will require you to pay tax to that country. Then you will also have to pay foreign exchange tax to transfer the money back to SA.
  • ZaphireZaphire
    I bet this really demotivates developers in South Africa to make apps/games
  • quintondquintond
    Basically my business partner is a U.S. Resident ... so all the money goes through the business there (or at least will ... one day). Eventually when we do start drawing money from the business, we will have to pay normal Foreign Exchange Tax as required by S.A. law.
  • criticcritic
    Google added electronic payments to South African bank accounts for Admob recently, I'm hoping that we get included in the Merchant Accounts sometime in the future.
  • petrcpetrc
    I guess the government and Sars is the real issue blocking the google merchant wallet in SA. And google doesn't see SA a big enough market to really care.
  • dislekciadislekcia
    @petrc: We don't know. The conversation with Google hasn't progressed far enough to identify issues. If it had, we'd have been trying to help them solve those problems.
  • cliveclive
    I've been trying to nudge them for years without much success, the guy I've chatted to, and to be clear even he isn't able to give a "when" or even an "if" is this guy:

    https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?trk=contacts-contacts-list-contact_name-0&id=1371418

    If anyone would know it'd be him, since it's his job to speak for us (developers) within Google and specifically for our region.
  • AngryMooseAngryMoose
    I reached out to someone quite high up at Google whom I know and got this for a response, which doesn't help clarify things at all :)

    "Sorry, but I don't know anyone involved in Wallet and have learned it's actually not that easy to dig around for the info in cases like this. If it's not publicly available I won't be able to get insider info for you."
  • RademancRademanc
    I have a sister in the UK and she set up an account for us. I think that might be the only way. I manage it from this side.
  • roguecoderoguecode
    Would a possible solution be to use a 3'rd party payment system? Like these guys who do operator billing: https://fortumo.com/pay-by-mobile
  • dislekciadislekcia
    roguecode said:
    Would a possible solution be to use a 3'rd party payment system? Like these guys who do operator billing: https://fortumo.com/pay-by-mobile
    Mostly because many of those providers don't support South Africa for very much the same reasons Google has problems here. Fortumo seems to work in SA, but the commission prices are insane. You only get a max of 55% of your payment out? Nope.

    https://fortumo.com/countries/south-africa

    There are also conversion issues when using third party apps, so a sure sale on Google Play can turn into a lost sale because someone doesn't trust the other operator. That plus the commission payouts make them a big no from my business perspective.

  • TuismTuism
    "Payout up to 55%"

    That:
    a) is an extortionary 45% commision!?
    b) sounds like gambling. "up to"??

    I'm personally digging around for options, and it seems like I'll have to head to Hong Kong or Taiwan to open a foreign bank account or something to that effect.
  • dislekciadislekcia
    Tuism said:
    "Payout up to 55%"

    That:
    a) is an extortionary 45% commision!?
    b) sounds like gambling. "up to"??
    That's what happens when there are three or four companies involved in your service delivery chain, each of them is taking what they consider a "reasonable" chunk of the amount they're moving for you.

    I did some more reading and that's the amount you can expect for payments from within South Africa. Every country on their system has a different "up to" share that you'd be getting from what you actually charged people. Some, like South Korea, give you up to 70%, others are a measly up to 15%.

    I don't think payments through mobile service providers are an effective means to sidestep Google Wallet. Yes, they could be great if you're working on feature phones or other non-Google Play devices, but not as a way to survive on the Play Store.
  • MitchMitch
    Here is the link to the petition to add South Africa as a valid merchant on Google Play:
    http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/add-south-africa-to-the-google-merchant-list
  • AppWarriorAppWarrior
    Hey Guys.

    Good info, been trawling the net for exactly this. Don't know how old the petition is but the link leads to a blank page. How many signatures were on it last?

    Does anyone know if we as developers are faced with the same limitations with developing IAP type apps for iOS.

    Have browsed through the apple.developers info but can't seem to find a straight answer like the list Google provides.

    Regards
    -AppWarrior
  • BoysanoBoysano
    Even without IAP you cannot ignore this huge user base! Why not just use ads and the app on goigle pkay to cross promote to your other games and same game on other stores.. Even just for marketing.
  • dislekciadislekcia
    AppWarrior said:
    Does anyone know if we as developers are faced with the same limitations with developing IAP type apps for iOS.

    Have browsed through the apple.developers info but can't seem to find a straight answer like the list Google provides.
    Which restrictions are you concerned about? Getting paid in general?

    Apple can pay to South African companies and individuals. Signing up as a company can be a bit difficult (you need to be a PTY and sometimes getting your DUNS number from Dunn & Bradstreet can be a thing that takes a while) but it can be done.
    Boysano said:
    Even without IAP you cannot ignore this huge user base! Why not just use ads and the app on goigle pkay to cross promote to your other games and same game on other stores.. Even just for marketing.
    I don't understand what you mean here - what huge user base, you mean iOS users as a whole? You do know that mentioning other stores in any one particular store is grounds to get your app removed, right?
  • NickCuthbertNickCuthbert
    Just saw this article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9537551
    Could be an interesting avenue to explore
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