Google also makes the 30% commission on in-app purchases mandatory

Strict app operations policy. The Mountain View giant aligns itself with Apple in its developer policy

(Photo by Mustafa Murat Kaynak / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Google also wants to strengthen its commercial policy regarding in-app purchases. The Mountain View giant has announced a tightening on the application of 30% commissions for payments made within the applications in its Play Store. With this move, the company aligns itself with Apple and will require Android app developers to rely on the Google Pay payment system for any type of transaction required by the applications, on which it charges a 30% commission fee.

As we read in the words of Sameer Samat, vice president of product management at Google, "with regard to developers who already have an app on Google Play and need a technical implementation to integrate our billing system and payments, we do not want to overly complicate their design and we will give them a year (until 30 September 2021) to complete all the necessary updates ”. Developers therefore have a year to adapt.

Currently, less than 3% of app developers on Google Play have sold digital products in the last twelve months, and of these over 97% already uses the Google payment platform with the 30% commission. In general, however, Android also allows users to install apps on their devices without going through its virtual store and to bypass its commercial policy, as for example Netflix and Spotify do, which provide direct payments by credit card for their services. , although in most cases users use Google Play to download and install applications.

Precisely on this front the clash that led Google to exclude the Fortnite game app from its Google Play Store, after Epic Games, the company that develops the famous video game, created a in-game payment system that does not include the use of tools related to Big G. This is the same issue that again led the producers of Epic to clash with Apple after having circumvented the commercial policy of Apple, which in turn provides the payment of a disputed 30% commission on purchases.

In fact, a 30% commission for in-app purchases is already included in Google's commercial policy but, unlike Apple, the Mountain View group has so far been softer in applying it and imposing it on developers. It now remains to be seen whether the newly formed Coalition for app fairness, a non-profit association that has brought together important technology companies such as Epic Games and Spotify against Apple's impositions, will also decide to fight against the crackdown announced by Google.