Business to business software can be a tough sell. Online B2B can be even a harder sell. While there is certainly money to be made, unless you’re one of the big players, the likelihood you’re going to succeed is pretty small. Starting today, Google is taking their roll as one of the big players and extending a platform to boost some smaller players.
Tonight, Google has unveiled their Google Apps Marketplace. This is an app store for enterprise apps in the cloud. Using a set of APIs, these third-party apps can deeply integrate their products within Google Apps, which already some 25 million people are using. And that also includes over 2 million businesses ranging from startups, to small businesses, to Fortune 500 companies.
For customers, this means a one-stop shop for a variety of applications that their business or organization can use. And it’s extremely simple to get started with apps in the marketplace — it just takes 4 clicks, Google says (though that initial click will have to come from your domain admin to approve the use of the app). For developers, particularly small startup developers, it means instant access to more users than they can likely imagine. It also potentially means something more important: money.
Like the popular mobile app stores (Apple’s App Store and Google’s own Android Market), Google is allowing developers to sell their apps through this Marketplace. And they’re actually offering a better deal: Google will keep just 20% of the revenue, while the developers keep the other 80% (compared to a 30/70 split with the Android Market). The reason for this better split is that Google believes the B2B market is a bit different, and they want to entice developers to join on board. And instead of Apple’s App Store, which charges a $100 yearly fee to developers, Google is charging a one-time fee of $100 to enroll in the program — and that’s for as many apps as you want to create.
As for what Google will do with their 20% share, they’re not entirely sure. “We don’t know what will happen with the revenue, but we think it’s a very fair rev share for the value we’re providing,” Google Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra says.
As you might expect, in the Marketplace, Google will feature certain apps on a rotating basis. And each will have a star rating system and reviews written by people who have used the app. Apps will be grouped into different categories to make it easier for customers to find exactly what they’re looking for. Once they do, the four steps alluded to above are:
- Click “Add it now”
- Agree to the vendor’s Terms of Service
- Grant access to the data that the app is requesting. Some apps require data access, some don’t – only grant access to apps you trust.
- Turn it on and start enjoying your increased productivity
So how does this all work? Google connection points for integration into Apps are actually done through open protocols such as OAuth. And while signing-in may seem like a pain across different apps, Google has streamlined that as well thanks to another open protocol: OpenID.
Once an app is hooked in to Google Apps, it will appear on your main Apps Dashboard alongside the other Google-made apps you use. It will even appear in the “more” drop down that Google uses in the toolbar across its properties. And because these apps are so tightly woven into Google Apps, they can take advantage of the built-in Google Apps such as Gmail and Gtalk to easily communicate within the third-party apps.
And there’s more. While it’s not quite ready to launch just yet, in the second half of 2010, Google plans to launch flexible billing options for third-parties using their services. Basically, this will allow companies to use Google Checkout to handle complicated billings, such as subscriptions. This could mean trouble for startups specifically in this space, such as Recurly. Also coming later will be detailed analytics for transactions, we’re told. For now, developers are free to hook up their data to their own analytic programs to run their numbers.
While Google’s options for this Marketplace sound nice and open, there’s actually something even better: you don’t have to build your apps on their platform. Whereas a big player like Salesforce wants to keep the apps it works with in the Force.com ecosystem, Google doesn’t care where you build it — it can be on App Engine, or on anything else. You simply hook your app up to the APIs and you’re ready to go. It’s a model so enticing that even a big Google competitor in this space, Zoho, is ready to work with them, and is launching as an initial partner. All told, there are more than 50 companies partnering up at launch, including a winner of the audience award at this year’s TechCrunch50, Socialwok.
As to whether Google could eventually roll this app store model out to the more consumer facing apps they offer, Gundotra gave me the old, “We have nothing to announce at this time.” That reads suspiciously to me like a “yes,” provided this is the hit it seems like it should be.
Holy shit! – Welcome to the new goldrush! Soduku App anyone?
I think this is the next step in Google’s vision when it developed Google Chrome browser. Google is definitely going after a piece of Microsoft’s pie and I think it starts with the average user where they won’t need the full capabilities of ie a MS Office Suite, but need some of the basic features. Exciting developments ahead!
More: http://bit.ly/google-app-marketplace-reactions
…And Chrome OS appears in second half of 2010.
…Oh wait!
Chromium OS, Google Tablet and Chrome netbook.. (hopefully before 2011)
Hell on Earth Mah men!
Congrats Google from Dimdim! Everyone here is excited to be part of the Google Apps Marketplace and committed to bringing the power of web conferencing to everyone.
Old freaking hash, the “mobil” app market….isn’t that getting a tad bit crowded? emerging market, one billion pc’s, that’s where the apps are going. Look http://smi.sh/ac20d
Wow, everything is rated 5 stars !! ~yawn.
A lot are unrated and I saw a 4 star rating. That said, looks like a lot of well made apps (dimdim, aviary, etc.) so not surprised a lot of 5 star ratings.
Looks like a great opportunity for business focused apps. Give the small guys a chance to penetrate the market. Great stuff.
Just my usual cynical comment stain.
The best thing about Google doing this is watching the stars… Will be interesting to track them from day zero.
I know, I know, it seems like another day another marketplace. But these marketplaces are a big deal to people who sell into this space. At Expensify they bring a really powerful stream of very qualified leads. We’re pretty excited to be a launch partner with the new Google Apps Marketplace.
http://blog.expensify.com/2010/03/09/what-google-apps-marketplace-means-to-your-small-business/
David–agreed. These marketplaces are a great way for sellers to reach a whole new market. OnState integrated it’s virtual call center and virtual PBX applications with Google Apps as part of this announcement. Now users can get the SaaS benefits of resiliency, scalability, and workforce virtualization along with the power of Google Apps; full customer collaboration from anywhere at any time!
http://www.onstate.com/google
roll? roll? school much?
It’s a fantastic idea; especially pertinent for developers who might want to write more complex programs for businesses, as opposed to Android/iPhone apps geared towards individuals.
Do we really need yet another app store. How about a cloud single sign-on solution that’s not tied to Google?
http://www.onelogin.com.
Bag the freakin cloud, here’s the market http://smi.sh/ac20d everything you do, online or off in one spot.
I’d like to start an app marketplace too, is there an app for that?
Although I don’t write apps yet but I believe this will be a good channel for developers to market their apps and a good place for consumers to start looking for apps that they want. Quoting what Steve Jobs said, “…connecting the dots.”
Great article. I was astonished to be told by Google in a really recent meeting with their senior Android team that the 30% app revenue retained from mobile app sales actually goes entirely to the mobile networks (minus a small processing fee).
I think this development is potentially massive for the sme sector, deeply customised apps for my taxi / bakery / plumbing / car servicing company. ….
Very interesting story!
Impressive -> It’s a model so enticing that even a big Google competitor in this space, Zoho, is ready to work with them, and is launching as an initial partner.
The App Marketplace is exciting, yet fifty times more disappointing. It looks like you can’t link current accounts together. You have to create new accounts with all of the Apps. Batchbook confirmed this on their forums and I couldn’t successfully link Freshbooks, Expensify, Batchbook, Zoho CRM, Zoho Projects, Tactile CRM and a few others. All of them were prompting for usernames, regardless of the domain or email address used on the third party app.
Jason,
Prompting for a username is one time only. We create an account for you automatically in Zoho and link it with your G Apps account. So we ask you to choose a username for the first time.
An account is necessary for other reasons. What happens if you signup for Zoho CRM and at a later point you no longer want to use G Apps. Does this mean all your data at Zoho is lost too? To avoid such scenarios, we create an account and keep your data intact.
That is perfectly fine. My issue is that current users of Zoho, or any other other App are left out in the blue. I already have accounts on Zoho with plenty of data in them. We cannot link these accounts, we have to create new ones. Therefore all of our data will NOT be in the new account. This is how it works with all of the Apps I tried in the App Marketplace.
You cannot link up your current accounts with Google Apps.
Hey, Sunir from FreshBooks here.
Right now, we’re only supporting new accounts through the Google Apps Marketplace because that is the most straightforward. Hooking up existing accounts is a much more involved problem. Since Google just launched this last night, we’re going to make sure everything works with our integration before we expose our existing customers to it. Because we’re managing your cash flow, we are naturally very conservative about making such changes.
So far it’s very smooth, but we prefer to observe for a few weeks to see how things go before planning further work.
Hi Jason, I’m not sure I understand: you’re not prompted for a username or password when you use Expensify via Google Apps Marketplace. (Unless you already have an Expensify account, then we prompt for your existing Expensify password.) So, I think we already do what you want. Hopefully that makes it less disappointing!
Google had to be quick to launch their own Apps Marketplace, before Microsoft did.
But whenever Microsoft does launch its own version of a Business Apps Marketplace, it will be game over for Google.
Because being last-to-market has served Microsoft so well in mp3 players and smartphones?
HI, will it be possible to connect Flash web apps, like KommandCore for example?
This is good for Google as well as developers, especially the new start ups.
Loads of people complain about Google but when they just keep on developing quality stuff, can we really complain…
I LOVE GOOGLE
http://www.gamermachine.com
http://www.technotie.com
I smell opportunities !!
Skill_guru is not google or apple but this is a marketplace for teachers and experts to sell their contents and mock tests
wow another market place that monopolises distribution and turning a software into simply stars.
pretty soon google will have an cat food store, and then all of the sudden, all the pet food companies will jump on board and give them the 20% for doing absolutely nothing.
bravo!
Shit just got real. Every time someone said (I like the idea of Google Apps, but if only it had _____), now “there an app for that”. Microsoft Office has… what, 15 or 20 apps if you include absolutely everything? And Google Apps now has well over 50.. hmm. Can’t wait for the cloud-based IDE.
I think this is the next step in Google’s vision when it developed Google Chrome browser. Google is definitely going after a piece of Microsoft’s pie and I think it starts with the average user where they won’t need the full capabilities of ie a MS Office Suite, but need some of the basic features. Exciting developments ahead!
not fully sure it should be termed as “Business to business”, but the idea is compelling.
This is just an APP EXchange marketplace like SalesForce and Apple, but purely focused on business applications, unlike consumer oriented APP Exchange model in Apple.
And unlike Salesforce, they App can be hosted anywhere else too .
If am a SMB or a SP, I could select the APPs that would value and pick and choose.
my two comments:
1)
If am a SMB or a SP, I could select the APPs that would value and pick and choose.
my two comments:
1) quality of the APPs – google will not have control over the APPs. they just go by feedback of users
2) Multiple marketplaces could surface like there, say one from Microsoft. Since the APPs are not hosted and not controlled by Google, a Developer can go to multiple marketplaces (including iPhone..)
Google apparently scares me. I dont think there will ever be bigger corp than Google in few years time.
Google is the new Cloud.
Thanks team Google-now 4 more clicks to alert my team…
hell that’s a great logo !