Google said Monday that the Korean market would continue to play a critical role in the growth of its Google Play platform.

“Korea is one of the most important markets, as it is in (the)top five nations with the largest number of developers for Google Play,” Jamie Rosenberg, vice president of Google’s digital content, said at its first Google Play event for partners and media in Seoul.

The vice president added that the number of Koreans developing apps on Google Play had tripled during the past two years. 

The Google Play event was the first to be held in Seoul. The firm used the forum to introduce its mobile application platform and its partners, who have been developing services for the mobile application platform.

“Google Play is a single destination where people can enjoy and share digital content and digital content experiences,” said Rosenberg, anticipating that that the Google platform would bring opportunities to more Korean developers and content creators.

Google’s partners, including mobile game developer Com2us, e-book publisher Gilbut Publishing and Yogiyo, the developer of a food delivery platform, made presentations about their businesses through the Google platform.

Also participating at the media event, AlarmMon, the developer of an alarm clock application, said it aimed to wake everyone around the world with its alarm services by collaborating with Google.

For the past two years since its launch in 2012, the number of downloaded apps surpassed 9 million in the global market, which the Korean venture attributed to the access it gave to Google’s global users.

Lee Hye-min, managing director of Noom Korea, the local branch of U.S.-based health app company Noom, said the app company had been running its fitness and health apps without extra costs to attract new customers thanks to the Google platform, which is available on all Android devices.

Google, meanwhile, said it would launch Movies Info Cards this week in Korea, which recognizes the faces of actors and actresses in movies and shows relevant information, such as profiles of the stars.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)