Google to announce merchant support on SA Play Store? [Update: yes]

Update: It didn’t take place on Monday, but Google nevertheless announced support on Thursday, issuing a press release.

“Starting today, developers in South Africa can sell paid applications, in-app products, and subscriptions in Google Play, with monthly payouts to their local bank accounts,” read an excerpt of the release.

Original article: The Google Play Store might be popular in South Africa, but it’s lacking one major feature in the form of merchant support for local developers.

The lack of merchant account support means South African developers can’t publish paid apps directly onto the Play Store. But that could change as soon as next week, as Google sends out a media invite for 6 November.

“Google will be making an announcement relevant to South African developers that develop for the Play Store on Monday,” reads an excerpt of the invite.

This isn’t confirmation of course (although it’s close), so we asked Google South Africa country director Luke Mckend. “Watch this space,” the country director told Memeburn in an interview.

“Will it be launching on Monday?” we pressed on.

“Watch this space,” Mckend reiterated.

Merchant account support has long been a sticking point for South African app developers, forcing them to formulate creative measures to publish paid apps. Solutions ranged from using foreign accounts to publishing on the Amazon AppStore instead.