Developers from Pakistan can now publish paid Android apps on Play Store

Today, Google has added Pakistan as a supported country from where developers can register a merchant account. Until now Android developers from Pakistan were able to register as developer only and could publish free apps to Google Play Store. Now with merchant accounts, developers from Pakistan can now publish paid Android apps to the Play Store and earn money.

In addition to Pakistan, there are several other countries from where the developers can publish paid Android apps to Play Store and earn. The list adds Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Puerto Rico, Qatar and Venezuela. All the countries support US dollars as default currencies whereas the developers from Lebanon and Pakistan will be able to use their native currencies as PKR (Pakistani rupee) and LBP (Lebanese pound).

You should not be confused here with the apps that you could download or pay on the Play Store to purchase apps. As the users from these countries were already able to download and/or pay to purchase content from Play Store. This news is specially in interest of the app developers who could only publish their apps for free. From now on, those developers can now charge their users for the apps if they want. The Pakistani and Lebanese developers have extra facility to charge in their native currencies.

If you are a developer and have not yet registered or published before, then head over to the Google Play Developer Console, enter some basic information to register. You will have to pay $25, a registration fee during the process of signing up so keep ready your credit card.

source: Play Store