今年3月，谷歌开张了专门面向企业的办公应用商店—–谷歌应用市场（Google Apps Marketplace），这一平台的概念十分简单，即开发商使用一组应用程序接口（APIs），就可以将第三方应用程序植入Google Apps（谷歌的办公工具软件，功能相当于微软的OFFICE办公系列，是谷歌十分看好的产品之一），为企业用户提供免费或付费应用下载服务。当时，包括Zoho、Socialwok、Aviary等在内的50多家初创企业作为谷歌的试航合作伙伴，向该平台投放首批应用产品。

Google-Apps

随后谷歌应用市场又陆续增加了Bantam Live和Bill.com等应用新产品，目前该平台可下载安装的应用已达200款之众。谷歌表示，约400万的Google Apps用户已选择安装谷歌应用市场的产品。可见，该市场不但是一个提供应用下载、招徕用户的平台，更是谷歌重要的吸金工具（每笔付费应用下载交易达成后，谷歌将向开发商征收其中20%的费用）。因此，谷歌不遗余力地四处笼络应用开发商，甚至在该平台为开发商发布热情洋溢的客户评价表。但这些应用产品的客户评价究竟是否可靠，先来听听开发商自己的说法。

Socialwok是一款兼容性很强的应用产品，可在Google应用和Microsoft Outlook上增加社交层功能，在今年3月就已作为试点产品入驻谷歌应用市场。Socialwok的开发者Ming Young表示，该产品刚在谷歌应用市场推出两周，即促成了4000笔交易，但这一高潮很快就回落了，下载量下降了一半。尽管该应用现在的每月交易量仅在600至800之间，但仍排在了谷歌应用市场最受欢迎应用的第三名。

但是Ming表示，谷歌应用市场尽管产品丰富，但质量良莠不齐，用户难以一眼辨别哪些应用是与谷歌产品兼容的，哪些则不然，“有些开发商不过是想借谷歌的名气给自己镀一层金而已，他们的应用实际上与谷歌产品毫无瓜葛……谷歌必须对这些来路不明的应用加以限制。”

目前，谷歌应用市场在首页列出了最受欢迎5款应用排行榜，最热门5款应用下载排行榜等，为用户推荐最抢手或者功能独特的应用。用户可以通过搜索界面，输入应用功能描述或者应用名称，找到自己所需的应用。

企业工具组件Zoho在3月份发行了CRM（谷歌最热门安装应用排行榜第五名）和Projects两款产品，数月后又相续推出了Invoice和Helpdesk两个应用。Zoho的讲师Raju Vegesna告诉笔者，这些产品在谷歌应用市场刚刚上架的时候，每天的下载量都达到数百人次，但还不到一个月时间，下载量就已停滞不前，沦落到现在每周不到500人次的下载量。

Vegesna告诉笔者，谷歌应用市场没有提供应用安装前的测试功能，这一点确实有点失策。他并不清楚谷歌应用市场的产品卸载率，但我们从另一名不愿具名的开发商那里得知，该平台的应用卸载率约20%左右。Vegesna同意Ming Young的看法，认为谷歌应用市场吸收的产品实在是杂乱无章，难以区分优劣，但在苹果应用商店就不会出现这种情况。

Aviary是一款包含成套设计工具组件的应用，是该平台最热门安排应用的第二名，其开发者Avi Muchnick拒绝透露该应用的准确下载数据，仅表示该产品初上架时的下载量极其惊人，但随后即陷入停滞状态。虽然Aviary并没有从该平台收获好评如潮的用户反馈，但Muchnick承认，在谷歌应用市场投放产品的好处之一，就是可以沾沾谷歌的名气，提高应用的品牌知名度。但与Ming Young、Raju Vegesna的意见一致，他也认为用户如果真想淘到宝，谷歌应用市场并不是一个理想的选择。

值得一提的是，以上三者都是谷歌应用市场初开业时的热门产品，但最后都难免落得同样冷清的结局。但Bantam Live的首席执行官John Rourke却表示，他开发的CRM应用于今年6月份投放谷歌平台，市场表现不俗，但也拒绝透露具体数字。谷歌方面也称这款CRM是该平台最热门的搜索词条，看来这类应用在谷歌平台确实最容易走红。

尽管谷歌发布了客户评价表，但对多数开发商而言，恐怕还是应用下载流量更具说服力。例如，企业生产和任务管理应用Manymoon的开发者声称，该应用每周都会新增1000人次的下载量，并一跃称雄谷歌平台热门安装应用榜首。这个数字也正好作为一个基准线，以便其他开发商了解这个应用平台最成功的产品所能创造的战绩。

当然，Manymoon其实是一款免费应用，这也正是它轻松击败其他付费应用的天然优势。实际上，该平台最热门安装的5款应用中，除了Zoho仅针对三种用户免费，其他全是免费应用。

还有一家许多人耳熟能详的科技公司（该公司同样不愿具名），今年3月份甫入谷歌应用市场还没站稳脚跟就返身出门，其新闻发言人表示，尽管该公司应用在谷歌平台的下载量远远低于预期，但应用在该平台的首次露脸的确招来了不少包括教育机构、州政府在内的客户。

但令这家公司颇有微词的是，谷歌限制开发商对Google Apps局域管理员的市场营销行为。谷歌主要针对使用Google Apps的初创企业推广该应用平台，但这家公司却认为，这种市场营销还可以再大胆推进一步，让Apps管理员获知最新应用发行情况，并及时向用户推荐。该公司新闻发言人表示，“我们理解谷歌力图保证Apps管理员不被市场营销骚扰的用意，但这样一来，开发商就不免陷入进退两难的尴尬处境，因为这个市场空间虽然庞大，但你却不得不束手束脚地行事，很难找到两全的办法。我们还是认为，如果允许采用灵活手段对终端客户推广应用，那是再好不过的事情了。”

另一桩让开发商颇为关注的事情是，谷歌欲将旗下的其他应用市场（比如Android和Chrome）一起植入谷歌应用市场，也就是说，开发商如果在谷歌应用市场占有一席之地，其应用产品也就拥有了对应的Chrome和Android平台版本。Socialwok的开发者Ming Yong认为，这项政策非常有利于应用产品的跨平台推广。

另一名开发商则表示自己更关注谷歌应用市场即将推行的付费体系改革。目前为止，谷歌应用市场仍实行用户直接向开发商付费的交易体系，但谷歌计划在今年年底接管该交易系统，用户支付的费用将先经手谷歌系统，再统一划到开发商的帐户上。该开发商认为谷歌应用市场、Chrome应用商店、Android应用市场这三者应该保持相互独立的状态，但希望后两者也能分别采用这套新交易系统，以便同一款应用的三个不同版本都能从中受益。

从这些迹象中可以看出，应用开发者和初创企业都很看好谷歌应用市场的发展前景，但谷歌在筛选应用产品、市场营销、应用搜索等方面仍存在需要改进的空间。至此，笔者还有一个疑问，如果所有最热门的应用都是免费下载产品，那么这个平台的400万用户中到底有多少人会付费下载应用？另外要注意的是，谷歌应用市场虽然是提高商务应用曝光率的绝佳平台，但它仅限于Google Apps软件系列。

Developers On Google Apps Marketplace: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Six months ago, Google launched its very own app store for enterprise apps, the Google Apps Marketplace, at the search giant’s Campfire One event. The idea behind the marketplace was fairly simple—using a set of APIs, third-party apps could deeply integrate their products within Google Apps and offer these free or paid apps to the productivity suite’s users. At launch, Google partnered with 50 startups and companies to provide these apps, including Zoho, Socialwok, Aviary, and more.

Since March, Google has been steadily adding additional apps to the store, including Bantam Live and Bill.com, and now counts more than 200 installable apps available in the Marketplace. Google says that there are 4 million Google Apps users (out of over 25 million users) with Marketplace apps installed on their domain. The Marketplace itself is a big venture for Google; not only is it a way to provide more functionality for Apps (and draw more users) but it’s also a monetization channel (Google takes a 20 percent cut of each sale). Google has been actively trying to get more developers to add their apps to the platform, even posting glowing testimonials from developers who offer apps on the marketplace. To see how representative these testimonials are, we decided to speak with a number of developers to see how their apps are actually performing on the Marketplace.

Socialwok, a collaboration product that adds a social layer to Google products and Microsoft Outlook, launched as a pilot partner for the Google Apps marketplace in March. Socialwok’s founder Ming Yong says that the startup was able to sign up 4,000 businesses in the two weeks following the launch of their app. After this huge spike, says Yong, downloads of the app went down by half. Socialwok, which is the third top rated app in the store, is now seeing 600 to 800 businesses adding the app per week.

Yong pointed out that via the App Marketplace, the startup was able to sign a big deal with a hotel chain to use Socialwok as a separate application across its business (not just within Google Apps). Apparently, the company saw Socialwok on the App Marketplace and became interested in using the full platform.

But one drawback, says Ming, is the vast amount of noise on the Marketplace and that it can be difficult for users to separate the wheat from the chafe. “There are some developers who just want to have a little Google dust on their brands and have zero-integration with Google’s actual product,” he explains. “There seems to be a more the merrier attitude when it comes to accepting apps in the Marketplace; Google needs to do a better job with regard to discriminating which apps are integrated.”

Currently, Google lists the top five rated apps, the top five downloaded apps, suggestions of popular and notable apps, and a few featured apps on the front page of the Marketplace. You can also search for apps generally by functionality (i.e. accounting, workflow) or by name.

Productivity suite Zoho (which actually competes against Google on a number of products) launched two apps, CRM (which is the fifth top installed app on the marketplace) and Projects, in March and added two other apps, Invoice and Helpdesk, a few months later. Zoho evangelist Raju Vegesna tells me that shortly following the launch of the Marketplace, Zoho saw a few hundred downloads a day, but growth leveled off within a month, and now the company sees less than 500 installs total of its apps per week.

One feature that is missing from the Marketplace, says Vegesna, is the ability to test out apps before installing them (Vegesna didn’t know the exact uninstall rate but we heard from one developer who preferred to remain anonymous that the uninstall rate of Apps on the Marketplace is around 20 percent). Vegesna agreed with Yong that there is a lot of noise on the marketplace but said that it’s not nearly as tough to differentiate as it is on Apple’s App Store.

Aviary, which offers a suite of design tools within an App on the Marketplace, also launched as a pilot partner in March and has risen to the second most installed app on the platform. Aviary founder Avi Muchnick declined to give us specific numbers but said right after launch there was a huge insurgence of traffic, but downloads have since dropped to a steady pace.

Aviary is not seeing a large amount of web referrals to its site from the marketplace. But one of the major benefits of being on the App marketplace, rather than downloads, he says, is brand awareness of being associated with Google. Echoing Yong and Vesegna’s criticisms, Muchnik adds that the app marketplace is not ideal for users to discover applications

It’s important to note that Aviary, Socialwok and Zoho all debuted their apps at the launch of the Marketplace, when buzz and downloads were high. I bet that apps that launched a few months after March aren’t seeing nearly as much traffic as these apps did in March. Bantam Live’s CEO John Rourke, who launched his CRM app in the Marketplace in June, said he’s pleased with the performance of his app (he declined to give us numbers). Google says that CRM is a top search term for the Marketplace, so it seems that those types of apps are seeing success on the Marketplace (Bantam Live is currently a featured app).

Even looking from the testimonials Google has published, as a whole developers seem to be pleased with the traffic post launch. For example, productivity and task management app Manymoon claims that it is adding 1,000 new sign-ups per week. And it is the top installed app on the marketplace so that should probably give developers a benchmark of how the most popular app in the marketplace is faring.

Of course, Manymoon is also free, which probably makes it more appealing than some of its paid competitors. In fact, all the top five installed apps are completely free for users except for Zoho, which is free for only three users.

One well-known technology company (which asked to be anonymous), which launched its app on in conjunction with the roll out of the marketplace in March, said that while the number of apps being downloaded is lower than they initially expected. But the app has been able to draw a wide variety of customers, including educational institutions and local and state governments.

The complaint this particular company had was around the marketing of the service to the millions of Google Apps domain administrators. According to the startup, Google seems to be marketing the platform mainly to new companies that join Google Apps. Another way the service could improve, says this company, is to provide a way for Apps administrators to notify users that a new App has been deployed.

As a company spokesperson says, “We understand that Google wants to be sure to protect businesses from having their employees heavily marketed to, and that’s the dilemma of a marketplace like this – it’s massive, but you have to exercise restraint in how you market to it. There’s no easy answer, but anything that helps apps raise awareness among end users in a tactful, responsible way, would be very helpful.”

Another issue that I heard from a number of developers was how Google will integrate its other marketplaces (Android, Chrome) into the App Store. Many of the developers who offer apps in the Marketplace also have Chrome plug-ins and Android apps. Socialwok’s Yong pointed out that it would be helpful to be able to cross-promote apps from each Marketplace.

One developer I spoke to was concerned over the upcoming change in the payment structure for App developers. Currently, users who download apps pay the developers directly. He says that by the end of the year Google plans to take over the payments process and will collect all the payments from users and will distribute payments to developers accordingly. He says that not only will this new payments integration will involve an adjustment of his product but he hopes that Google will offer a payment system that can be integrated in the same way for the Chrome web store and the Android Marketplace (he thinks that each integration will have to be separate and won’t be unified).

As you can see from these anecdotes, developers and startups seem generally happy with their app’s performance on the Marketplace. But clearly Google has some improvements to make, particularly in the area of filtering out apps, marketing and app discovery. Another observation—if all of the most popular apps are free, I am left wondering how many of the 4 million users who use apps are actually paying for their apps.

It seems more likely that for now, the Google Apps Marketplace is good exposure for business apps, as Muchnick says. It can only help to be associated with Google Apps, a product that Google has very high hopes for as a viable cloud-based alternative to Microsoft Office. （source：techcruch）

声明：本文中文为游戏邦翻译，英文原文采用techcruch，转载请保留版权信息，谢谢！