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Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

android-developers.googleblog.com

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Re: Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

#181

Post by sidlls »

giantg2 wrote: post #165
shimfish wrote: post #106

What's also not being said here is that ~99% of apps on Google Play don't make money this way either. Due to a combination of Android user's reluctance to spend money on apps at all and the rampant piracy that Android's open model makes trivially easy, most developers only way to make money is through in-app advertising, which this change obviously makes no difference to. Google Play is mostly a pyramid scheme. Devel…

At least they aren't charging $100 per year to be a developer like Apple does. I would have liked to make my apps multiplatform, but it just doesn't make sense at that price. Edit: It's great to see that this platform likes downvoting people who release their software for free. Profit matters above all else. I guess next you all will tell me my job is worthless and I suck at life because I make under $100k.

If it doesn’t make sense at $100/year, your apps just don’t make enough to matter to your budget at all anyhow.

Re: Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

#182

Post by freeflight »

criddell wrote: post #156
shimfish wrote: post #106

What's also not being said here is that ~99% of apps on Google Play don't make money this way either. Due to a combination of Android user's reluctance to spend money on apps at all and the rampant piracy that Android's open model makes trivially easy, most developers only way to make money is through in-app advertising, which this change obviously makes no difference to. Google Play is mostly a pyramid scheme. Devel…

I've always wondered what it is about Android that makes users reluctant to pay for apps. I'm guilty of it too. I have both iOS and Android devices and I spend far more money buying apps on my iOS device.

Ease of access to piracy could play a big role. I haven't looked into this for a long time, but last I checked an iPhone needs to be jailbroken to side-load anything not from the AppStore.

While with Android even with most default roms it's just a matter of changing one setting in the options and transferring the pirated apk file to the device to launch it.

A much more straight-forward process with Android devices vs iOS devices and piracy strives on convenience.

Re: Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

#183

Post by bogwog »

dfabulich wrote: post #48

Here's the next achievable goal to fight for: I want the fee structure Microsoft provides on the Microsoft Store. https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2018/05/07/a-new-... Microsoft takes only a 5% cut if customers click on a link on my website with my referral code, taking them directly to the store details page. Otherwise, they take a 15% cut. > consumer applications (not including games) sold in Microsoft St…

That's a nice fee structure, but honestly I don't care if Google and Apple increase the fee to 90% as long as there are alternative stores that can realistically compete against GPlay and the App Store.

That means no scary warnings and endless dialogs filled with FUD about malware and stealing personal data, or requiring non-technical users to understand and enable a checkbox hidden deep inside the settings app, or dedicating full-time teams of security researchers to finding and irresponsibly disclosing vulnerabilities in competing stores, among other things.

Because when there's competition, a fee structure like what the Microsoft Store has will naturally appear.

Re: Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

#184

Post by hu3 »

cletus wrote: post #146
hu3 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's proposition is better still. If I make $2 million on Apple i'll have to pay $600k in fees. On Google it's $450k.

Does Apple really do that? If you make $1m, they'll take $150k but if you make $1 more they'll take $300k? Really? I assumed it wouldn't be that dumb. Is it really the case?

It's that dumb and convoluted like Dylan16807 explained.

Re: Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

#185

Post by kop316 »

shimfish wrote: post #106

What's also not being said here is that ~99% of apps on Google Play don't make money this way either. Due to a combination of Android user's reluctance to spend money on apps at all and the rampant piracy that Android's open model makes trivially easy, most developers only way to make money is through in-app advertising, which this change obviously makes no difference to. Google Play is mostly a pyramid scheme. Devel…

> the rampant piracy that Android's open model makes trivially easy

Respectfully, I would like a citation on this. How is piracy for Android any easier than say, Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux?

Re: Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

#186

Post by giantg2 »

sidlls wrote: post #181
giantg2 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least they aren't charging $100 per year to be a developer like Apple does. I would have liked to make my apps multiplatform, but it just doesn't make sense at that price. Edit: It's great to see that this platform likes downvoting people who release their software for free. Profit matters above all else. I guess next you all will tell me my job is worthless and I suck at life because I make under $100k.

If it doesn’t make sense at $100/year, your apps just don’t make enough to matter to your budget at all anyhow.

Of course it doesn't make money - it's free. It doesn't have ads either.

Re: Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

#187

Post by giantg2 »

briandear wrote: post #179
giantg2 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least they aren't charging $100 per year to be a developer like Apple does. I would have liked to make my apps multiplatform, but it just doesn't make sense at that price. Edit: It's great to see that this platform likes downvoting people who release their software for free. Profit matters above all else. I guess next you all will tell me my job is worthless and I suck at life because I make under $100k.

If $100/yr is too much, then it’s very likely your app isn’t profitable. A person doesn’t say “I would sell my product at Target, but spending money on gas to deliver it to their distribution center is too expensive.” Literally, it’s $8.33 per month to be a part of the Apple Developer program. If your app isn’t making that much in a month, then your app isn’t very good or you’re bad at business. No disrespect intende…

Or maybe I released it as free software.

Re: Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

#188

Post by bogwog »

deergomoo wrote: post #75
athirnuaimi wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stripe has real costs because it has to interact with the visa and MasterCard networks. The app stores basically have zero incremental costs. They just let you download a file from a directory of listings

They host the files and pay for the traffic, that's not insignificant at the scale of Google and Apple, even considering their enormous size. There was a story a couple of years back about how Apple's AWS bill was $30 million/month, I'd bet a large chunk of that is the App Store.

> They host the files and pay for the traffic

That's BS because they don't give you the option to host it yourself and avoid the fee, plus it costs them nearly nothing. $30 million/year dollars might seem like a lot until you realize Apple makes over $70 BILLION/year from app store revenues alone.

Also, what traffic? Organic traffic on app stores has always been terrible. In most cases, you can't even find an app by searching for it directly unless it's well-known like Netflix or Amazon. Even developers who have been "featured" over the years have reported a huge spike in traffic followed by an immediate fall-off and return to the same traffic numbers before the feature.

Re: Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

#189

Post by withinboredom »

briandear wrote: post #179
giantg2 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least they aren't charging $100 per year to be a developer like Apple does. I would have liked to make my apps multiplatform, but it just doesn't make sense at that price. Edit: It's great to see that this platform likes downvoting people who release their software for free. Profit matters above all else. I guess next you all will tell me my job is worthless and I suck at life because I make under $100k.

If $100/yr is too much, then it’s very likely your app isn’t profitable. A person doesn’t say “I would sell my product at Target, but spending money on gas to deliver it to their distribution center is too expensive.” Literally, it’s $8.33 per month to be a part of the Apple Developer program. If your app isn’t making that much in a month, then your app isn’t very good or you’re bad at business. No disrespect intende…

But it does mean that your app needs to make $8.33 a month, whether via ads, in-app purchases, cost of the app, or all of the above. On Android, an app doesn't have a floor. You could make a free app, with no ads, and not have to make any money.

Re: Google Play service fee reduced to 15% for the first $1M/year

#190

Post by withinboredom »

giantg2 wrote: post #186
sidlls wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it doesn’t make sense at $100/year, your apps just don’t make enough to matter to your budget at all anyhow.

Of course it doesn't make money - it's free . It doesn't have ads either.

I'd love to see that if your app was free with no ads, you didn't have to pay for a dev account.
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