Homegrown app marketplace One Store steps onto the global stage

Homegrown app marketplace One Store is venturing into the global market, leveraging the worldwide antimonopoly movement toward app stores.

One Store CEO Peter Chun speaks at a press conference on Wednesday. [ONE STORE]

Homegrown app marketplace One Store is venturing into the global market, leveraging the worldwide antimonopoly movement toward app stores.

The recent Digital Markets Act passed in the European Union reflects the ongoing backlash against monopolized app stores. The act mandates the Apple iOS in the EU to open its doors to third-party app stores.

One Store was recently certified by Apple to offer its app marketplace service on iOS devices.

"One Store will face the monopolized players in the global market by joining forces with local partners," said its CEO Peter Chun in a press conference on Wednesday.

"We aim to become the most competitive app market in the world by 2030," he said, adding that "being competitive" indicates offering more benefits to developers and users.

Starting with Taiwan and United States this year, One Store is planning to advance into European and Japanese markets by next year.

One Store has selected a "hyper-localization strategy" where it forges partnerships with local companies to launch tailored services and benefits to game developers as well as users.

For Taiwan, where it initiated a beta launch in June, One Store joined forces with local game developer Happytuk to launch a joint app store called Enjoystore.

Enjoystore currently has more than 200 games available on the platform with more than 20,000 installations, according to One Store.

As an underdog in the industry, One Store is offering a lower commission rate to game developers to attract more games on the platform. Its commission currently stands at 20 percent while that of Google and Apple is at 30 percent.

Epic Games, a U.S. game developer behind popular shooting game Fortnite, is slated to offer its flagship games on the platform as well.

One Store will attempt a do-over for its initial public offering in the next three years, according to Chun, which it had failed once in 2022.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]