If those walled gardens could end, everybody would be better off. They don't even filter apps that abuse users, anyways.
Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account
481–490 of 530 posts
Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account
#482This is terrible and I feel for the developers. I trust that they are honest in their description of their side. I also acknowledge that Google have a long way to go in terms of communication. That said, I’ll offer an alternative history... The author hired developers who have previously uploaded malicious code to the Play store, or actively tried to circumvent restrictions on it. That developer uploaded an app, Goog…
>I’d frame it in terms of getting a new account set up
Er, that's against the TOS. They will immediately ban that account, and any account they ever make.
It would be evidence of you trying to avoid the TOS.
Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account
#483Earlier quoted context omitted.
OK. Under this definition of "going hard," literally all companies will "go hard" to defend themselves against incorrect small claims suits. The alternative is to always pay anyone who sues you for $100, since the effort of defending any individual suit in that amount will always be greater than the amount of the potential judgment. Of course, you can't do that, because then more people will start suing you for $100,…
Have you considered that perhaps a better alternative is to act in ways that don't make customers feel they need to sue you for redress?
Everything is tradeoffs. I think Google's stance is probably near optimal for what they are trying to do, even if there are errors from time to time.
Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account
#484Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keep G Suite, but buy your own domain (whatever.com) so you are in total control. If they ban you, just change DNS records to point to zoho or some other provider.
This also requires maintaining decent backups of the gsuite emails, calendars, contacts, and drives that people are using.
Which is good practice anyway, just in case of an outage, or someone hacking your account, or whatever.
But I agree, too risky. Just stay away from Google. Cons outweigh the pros, for me personally. The only thing I used it for was sheets, docs and gmail. LibreOffice is more than adequate for me, and far better than the Google alternatives.
Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have collected billions from developers via their 30% commission on sales and IAPs on their app store, plus the massive volume of advertisements shown in their customers apps for which their split is much more than 30%. Many developers are paying thousands or more a month to Google. Google's customers include advertisers, and they include people paying them for hosting, and people paying them to buy apps, and pe…
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204419... Their revenue last year was 136 billions. Even if we charitable assume app developers spend 10 billions per annum in aggregate, that's only 10%. Ancillary revenue.
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Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account
#486The question I always have with this stuff is this: To attract developers, these platforms make some promises. A "review" process for supposed violations of TOS causing cancellations is always among them. But to me these "reviews" always seem either completely faked or some version of a lowest-level employee simply restating that the algo has made its choice and they are powerless. More incriminating is that every ti…
So says you. This is what the ToS say: Google may terminate this Agreement with You for any reason with thirty (30) days' prior written notice. In addition, Google may, at any time, immediately suspend or terminate this Agreement with You if: (a) You have breached any provision of this Agreement, any non-disclosure agreement or other agreement relating to Google Play or the Android platform; (b) Google is required to…
I'm extremely sympathetic with Mark. And Google's support for its ~free services is indeed cursory.
Sure, one possible lesson is not making your business dependent on such third parties. But if your business involves an app, you're pretty much stuck being dependent on Google and Apple. I mean, ask Facebook about that. And amusingly, Google re Apple ;)
The key lesson here, I think, is the importance of vetting any consultants, developers, etc that you use. In particular, the importance of vetting their reputations with Google and Apple.
And indeed, maybe it's best to isolate consultants, developers, etc from Google and Apple. They do work for you, and then you interact with Google and Apple. And you make sure that everything gets sanitized, in the process. That would protect businesses, consultants, and developers from each other regarding their reputations with Google and Apple.
For many years, I did work for attorneys. But I never submitted anything directly to any court, opposing counsel, or whatever. And I was careful to wipe my identity from any electronic files that would be submitted.
Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have collected billions from developers via their 30% commission on sales and IAPs on their app store, plus the massive volume of advertisements shown in their customers apps for which their split is much more than 30%. Many developers are paying thousands or more a month to Google. Google's customers include advertisers, and they include people paying them for hosting, and people paying them to buy apps, and pe…
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204419... Their revenue last year was 136 billions. Even if we charitable assume app developers spend 10 billions per annum in aggregate, that's only 10%. Ancillary revenue.
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Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account
#488Situations like these (and others mentioned here) make me nervous to publish to Google Play and are making me reconsider use of their other services namely Google Cloud. A lot of the issues being highlighted here are not simple ToS violations, they have far more to do with psycho automation coupled with an arrogant company culture that is actively dismissive of their customers.
Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account
#489We need a way to unionize across all these properties.
YouTube contributors, Android developers, etc.
Unless we have collective action these companies will simply not care about us.
Re: Google terminated our business via our Google Play Developer Account
#490Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have collected billions from developers via their 30% commission on sales and IAPs on their app store, plus the massive volume of advertisements shown in their customers apps for which their split is much more than 30%. Many developers are paying thousands or more a month to Google. Google's customers include advertisers, and they include people paying them for hosting, and people paying them to buy apps, and pe…
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204419... Their revenue last year was 136 billions. Even if we charitable assume app developers spend 10 billions per annum in aggregate, that's only 10%. Ancillary revenue.
Android alone accounted for $31b revenue in 2016, according to Oracle, of which $22b was purportedly profit just for 2016. Excluding Android's contribution to their advertising ecosystem, which is another chunk of that $136 billion you mention. That's far more than 10% of their gross profit, but even if it was less why would that absolve Google of responsibility? The % doesn't create the customer the transactions do.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-21/google-s-...