Ravi Belwal of Samsung at GamesBeat Summi 2017.
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Why alternative app stores and emerging markets are good for developers

With huge mobile game revenues on iOS and Android, it isn’t second nature to think about alternatives. But Ravi Belwal, head strategic partner manager for games at Samsung, reminded us that developers can make money with alternative app stores and emerging markets.

Belwal is a walking contradiction, as he works at Samsung, one of the biggest mobile device companies in the world, and yet he is also an advocate for its Samsung Galaxy Apps Store, which is far smaller than Apple’s App Store and Google Play. He’s also an evangelist for Tizen, Samsung’s mobile operating system that is debuting on inexpensive smartphones in countries such as India.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.