The market share of South Korean app store One Store has reached a record high of 18.4 percent in August with 68.9 billion won, according to a local market research agency here Thursday.

One Store is the largest local app store platform developed by the nation’s three mobile carriers -- KT, SK Telecom and LG U+ -- and Naver in 2016.

The market shares of Google Play and Apple Store in August were 71 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively, the market research report added.

The report said One Store’s latest performance was largely backed by increased sales of mobile games, which account for 95 percent of sales on the local app store.

Nexon’s mobile game The Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon, a mobile remake of Nexon’s online game originally launched in 1996, posted 6 billion won of sales on the One Store.

The industry sources explained that cheaper commission system helped the local application store to attract more customers. In 2018, One Store lowered its commission to 20 percent. The local app store also began charging only 5 percent commission to in-app products if developers used their own payment systems.

Meanwhile, Google Play and Apple Store currently charge 30 percent commission for in-app transactions, which local developers and businesses call excessive.

Han Sang-hyuk, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, on Wednesday has said in response that these platforms might be in violation of related laws.

The Ministry of Science and ICT has also announced last week that it would look into Google and Apple’s in-app payment systems in response to the claims by local app developers.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)