免费向现有客户分发付费应用

Question

We are developing an app for both iOS and Android that we would like to sell as a paid app on the App Store and Google Play Store. However, we would like to be able to distribute the app for free to our existing clients.

I understand that both Google and Apple offer promo codes to give the app away for free, but only in a very limited number.

Would it possible to do something like have our company get a VPP account, then buy our own app in bulk then giving it to our clients for free? Would this be legal and comply with the terms of services?

What options are available for doing this for the Google Play Store?

Answer 1

Unfortunately this functionality doesn't exist at the moment. Imagine if it did - companies could get around paying Google for their share of the paid app revenue, yet still have Google take all the cost for serving.

I'm curious:

• how many clients you have
• what country you are in

There are a few things you could do right now, all a bit of a hack.

1. Buy a Google Play gift card (or cards) and give them to existing clients. These can be bought online or in store

2. Send the app as a gift (if you are in a country where this is enabled) https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/3422734?hl=en-GB

3. If your clients already have some sort of work relationship with you, then you could investigate Google Play for Work: https://support.google.com/googleplay/work/answer/6137711?hl=en This allows large organizations to distribute apps inside their organization, and it might work for you if your clients already have some sort of log-in relationship with you.