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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

#71

Post by valvar »

square_usual wrote: post #57
modeless wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a recent Android blog post that said "we will be making changes in Android 12 (next year's Android release) to make it even easier for people to use other app stores on their devices". https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/09/listening-...

It will be ages before Android 12 is on a plurality of devices, not even a majority.

That's assuming the feature even materializes. I don't it's cynical to assume that Google might shelve a "feature" that undermines their own business at the first opportunity.

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

#72

Post by elwell »

natex wrote: post #35
elmomle wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine that it's speculation but it's reasonable speculation, since maximizing profits is pretty much the sole goal of a publicly traded corporation at the end of the day.

I don't think that supports the speculation since as the GP stated, Google is actually doing the opposite of maximizing profits in this case.

> Google is actually doing the opposite of maximizing profits in this case

You've chosen a difficult position to argue.

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

#73

Post by enos_feedler »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #11

Worth remembering that as good as it is that Google is reducing it's abusive taxation on third party developers, the primary reason they're doing this is to try to quiet the majority of developers asking for stronger government regulations against this taxation without actually reducing their profit much, since the large companies which bring in the majority of revenue still have to pay full price. Basically, they're…

The primary reason they are doing it is because Apple did it. Same goes for every other rev share change that Apple has implemented.

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

#74

Post by Crazyontap »

I sometimes wonder if Apple didn't come up with this model of charging devs 30% even Google wouldn't have too. These companies often end up with similar policies. But that one greedy kid showed everyone how easy it is to leech off on hard work of devs (who are also to be blame as we happily agreed to this BS) and now it's a common practice.

If safari browser had a Safari store with 30% cut pretty sure chrome extension store would also be charging 30% instead of their 5% now.

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

#75

Post by deergomoo »

athirnuaimi wrote: post #68
vishnumohandas wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 5% That’s less than the Stripe tax!

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.

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

#76

Post by elwell »

elmomle wrote: post #27
natex wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your feeling on what Google's hopes speculation, or do you have some inside information?

I imagine that it's speculation but it's reasonable speculation, since maximizing profits is pretty much the sole goal of a publicly traded corporation at the end of the day.

> maximizing profits is pretty much the sole goal of a publicly traded corporation

Would that extend to for-profit private companies? Employees? Sub 1m revenue app developers?

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

#77

Post by koonsolo »

Crazyontap wrote: post #74

I sometimes wonder if Apple didn't come up with this model of charging devs 30% even Google wouldn't have too. These companies often end up with similar policies. But that one greedy kid showed everyone how easy it is to leech off on hard work of devs (who are also to be blame as we happily agreed to this BS) and now it's a common practice. If safari browser had a Safari store with 30% cut pretty sure chrome extensio…

30% is pretty common, just look at Steam. You can download and install games on you Windows machine straight from any website. Yet Steam was able to take a 30% cut and be very successful.

The fact remains that developers are very happy to give 30% when their sales increase with a few factors.

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

#78

Post by SomeHacker44 »

athirnuaimi wrote: post #68
vishnumohandas wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 5% That’s less than the Stripe tax!

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

These credit card fees are likely under 3% in the US. So taking 5% adds about 2% for convenience.
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