Google says Chrome Web apps more engaging, profitable, launches Web Store to all

In the Wednesday keynote at Google I/O in San Francisco, Google disclosed some information about the Chrome Web Store that should be of key importance to web application developers and those measuring the profitability of development in that area.

The total audience of Chrome users is more than 160 million, and in the first three months of the Chrome Web store's existence, 17 million applications were installed. This may not seem like much at first, but the store was only available in the United States, and only to users of the most up-to-date version of Chrome.

Engagement is higher- Users who installed a web app in their Chrome browser spent twice as much time using it as they would if they hadn't. Springpad was cited as one particular Web app that noted this trend.

Spending is higher- Web-based games that can be installed as a Chrome app enjoy 2.5 times more in-game transactions than regular browser-based games. Vikas Gupta of the Google Payments team unveiled a new seamless international payment system for developers looking to use Google Checkout for in-app transactions and take advantage of this fact. The system incurs a flat 5% fee.

Chrome Web Store now available everywhere- These statistics came only from the United States, but Google today opened the Chrome Web Store in 41 languages in all countries where Chrome is available.