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Google will lose $50M or more in 2018 from Fortnite bypassing the Play Store

techcrunch.com

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Re: Google will lose $50M or more in 2018 from Fortnite bypassing the Play Store

#2
> In the process, it’s costing Google around $50 million this year in platform fees, according to a new report.

It's not costing Google anything, and they're not losing money on this either. It's revenue that they might have expected to earn, which they're now not going to be earning.

Re: Google will lose $50M or more in 2018 from Fortnite bypassing the Play Store

#3
"Unlike Apple, which only allows apps to be downloaded from its own storefront, Google’s platform is more open."

Oh the irony. Android is more open than iOS and yet its Google that EU found to be at fault with Android. How is this not a classic example that, if anything, Android provides a more open platform?

Re: Google will lose $50M or more in 2018 from Fortnite bypassing the Play Store

#5
I can't imagine that 100% of the people interested in fortnite for android are willing to sideload the apk. I would be surprised if this wasn't having a net-negative impact on the total number of android users. I wonder if this is just to avoid paying a percentage on in-app purchases? What else could it be?

Re: Google will lose $50M or more in 2018 from Fortnite bypassing the Play Store

#6
Great! For the odd app or two which can actually feasibly pull this off, it is good that it's on the table. I'm sure Google is not losing sleep over this (after all, they miss out on the expenditures as much as the revenues). "Lose" is really the wrong way to put it: it wasn't theirs to begin with.

Re: Google will lose $50M or more in 2018 from Fortnite bypassing the Play Store

#9
On the other hand, Epic will lose out on the easy-to-access money that users have available on the Play Store through gift cards or google pay.

The only reason I downloaded Hearthstone on my ios device was so I could use store credit to purchase packs. Otherwise I would have just remained a solely F2P player.

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