More than 50 companies are involved in the store initially, Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering, said yesterday at a software developers event at Googles headquarters in Mountain View, California. The company will take a 20 percent cut of application sales and charge a one-time fee of $100.
“Its a great way to discover, to find and install applications into your business,” Gundotra said. The marketplace offers “not just any applications, applications that are deeply integrated with Google Apps.”
The company is stepping up competition with Microsoft Corp. by selling business software as an alternative to Office programs. Google says its online word-processing, spreadsheet, e-mail and calendar software has attracted more than 2 million users.
The new marketplace offers several different types of software, including accounting and finance along with sales and marketing. Googles business customers include Genentech Inc. and the city of Orlando, Florida.
Google fell $2.29 to $560.19 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have dropped 9.6 percent this year before today.