91–100 of 113 posts
Will this kill Steam? I suspect that's their main adversary as in mobile space they are non-existing, yet they can't dominate gaming space on PC.
Apparently Microsoft believes that there is demand for a Windows Store and its apps, but games on the Windows Store are so successful that they don't need the cut.
I would not have thought that possible, but I don't have access to Microsoft's business metrics.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
PayPal has established the absolute rock-bottom industry-floor of 2.9% + $0.30 for payment processing + fraud reduction. Fraud reduction accounts for the majority of that percentage. Patreon has established that they will completely go out of business at 5%. Steam is taking 30% and Epic is taking 12%. Salaries, servers and regulation are expensive. Microsoft offering 5% is a steal.
> PayPal has established the absolute rock-bottom industry-floor of 2.9% + $0.30 for payment processing + fraud reduction. This is neither unique to PayPal or the actual floor. 2.9% + (roughly) $0.30 is pretty much the standard across all public facing credit card processors like PayPal (and their subsidiary Braintree), Stripe, Amazon Pay, Authorize.net, and more. I have heard rumors Stripe offers rates as low as 1.8…
Will this kill Steam? I suspect that's their main adversary as in mobile space they are non-existing, yet they can't dominate gaming space on PC.
Games are still 30%, so no. Apparently Microsoft believes that there is demand for a Windows Store and its apps, but games on the Windows Store are so successful that they don't need the cut. I would not have thought that possible, but I don't have access to Microsoft's business metrics.
Here's how the new payment structure works: > When Microsoft delivers a customer through other methods (tracked by an OCID), such as when the customer discovers the app in a Microsoft Store collection, through Microsoft Store search, or through any other Microsoft-owned properties, then you will receive 85 percent of the revenue from that purchase. > When there is no CID or OCID attributed to a purchase, in the insta…
under this model, it encourages (perhaps) some of the smaller/medium Enterprise vendors to give up having to deal with a payment system at all, in exchange for simplified distribution (if I read this correctly) and no more payment handling, and in exchange MS gets a 5% cut.
This to me makes complete sense. Most of the Windows ecosystem for software is mostly out side of Microsoft's hands. Indeed, it is the #1 strength of the platform beside its ubiquity.
I actually think this is a brilliant insight on the side of Microsoft, by inverting this model they get a non-zero slice of a a pie they previously did not have.
It also encourages more vendors to uptake the distribution model via their Store, which I think is ultimately what they want more than a cut of sales in aggregate.
Say nothing of the home user, who beyond MS Office perhaps never transacts at all with Microsoft when they buy other software.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds about right, although 5% (or 15%) is a pretty good deal IMO for worldwide payment processing, installer and update distribution, DRM, and their built-in tools like crash reporting, push notifications, analytics, affiliation, and attribution.
It’s insanely good deal. MSFT has to be losing money on that.
I'd be interested to take the pulse of HN: When you are looking for a new Windows app, does opening up the store even cross your mind? I nearly always go to a web search + download first. Or if it's something dev-centric I look at scoop or chocolatey. The Windows Store is far, far behind in my mindshare. There are a few glimmers of hope though. Python has begun to distribute via the store which is cool. And the Linux…
I found things closer to what I was looking for than I did on the web too, but still came to the conclusion that what I was looking for doesn't exist (a good non-mobile app for marking up pdf's with a stylus - the closest I've found is Microsoft Edge of all things).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s insanely good deal. MSFT has to be losing money on that.
Like all digital goods, the marginal cost of MSFT doing this is zero. I don't think they are losing money on this, in terms of pure margins, its probably quite lucrative (though in absolute revenue, maybe not so much).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
PayPal has established the absolute rock-bottom industry-floor of 2.9% + $0.30 for payment processing + fraud reduction. Fraud reduction accounts for the majority of that percentage. Patreon has established that they will completely go out of business at 5%. Steam is taking 30% and Epic is taking 12%. Salaries, servers and regulation are expensive. Microsoft offering 5% is a steal.
Fraud reduction is largely irrelevant on non tangible products though, especially when licenses can be revoked online.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like all digital goods, the marginal cost of MSFT doing this is zero. I don't think they are losing money on this, in terms of pure margins, its probably quite lucrative (though in absolute revenue, maybe not so much).
Credit card processing is not a digital good, per se. Microsoft has to pay Visa and Mastercard their x% + y cents, and has to deal with returns and fraud and whatnot. Which is not to say that they're losing money, but this isn't the true zero-marginal-cost scenario like a Google web search.