14 DAY TRIAL // Whatever your thoughts on the Chrome Web Store, it remains quite a unique way of showcasing your web app the world. With more than 100 million users, Chrome provides a huge potential market. The trick is to reach it.
Google says that the Web Store, which has finally gone international, is a great opportunity for app makers, from around the world, to find a global audience and to potentially sell their apps to any Chrome user on the web.
"Developers from around the world have already launched successful apps in the Chrome Web Store to US users. Now all developers can reach a global user base," Alexandra Levich, product manager at Google, wrote.
"What makes this global reach even more interesting is the global payments infrastructure that goes along with it," she said.
"The store allows developers from 20 countries to sell apps in the store, and users to buy apps in their local currency," she explained.
"We also recently launched the In-App Payments API, which allows developers (U.S.-only for now; international soon) to sell virtual goods in their apps," she added.
But you don't have to take Google's word on it, the company is providing examples of apps from local developers that have found global audiences.
One great example is the truly wonderful Audiotool app. Musicians or those wanting to dabble in music creation will find it very useful. If there's one app that really shows what the web can do for applications, this is it.
Audiotool has been around for a few years and has gained a loyal following. But after launching in the Chrome Web Store, it saw a 20 percent traffic increase.
The team even launched a second app, Audiotool Radio, which streams the public creations of Audiotool users.
But there are even better examples. Psykopaint, a photo painting app by French developer Mathieu Gosselin, saw a 700 percent in traffic after publishing it to the Web Store.
Still, the Web Store's full potential is far from realized. But the general trend is to move everything to the web and more app makers are bypassing app stores and going web first.