Google halves developer fees on the Play Store

They will pay 15% within the first million dollars earned through the digital store, but there is no shortage of controversy over payment systems

A Google Play Store logo is seen on an Android portable device on February 5, 2018. (Photo by Jaap Arriens / NurPhoto via Getty Images) Google commissions halved for all developers selling digital goods or services on Play, within the first million dollars of revenue each year, through the digital store: announces Google Vice President Sameer Samat, with a post on the company blog. The change will reduce fees to 15%, and will go into effect starting July 1, involving 99% of developers globally who sell digital goods and services on Play. All developers will benefit from it "regardless of size" and once the one million threshold is exceeded during the year, the rate will return to 30% for in-app purchases and downloads.

The measure intends to give the possibility to incoming actors and to the smallest to free up resources to eventually invest in human capital, ICT enhancements or marketing, with a view to "helping developers to scale", knowing that sometimes " partners with a turnover of 2, 5 or even 10 million a year are still looking for sustainability, ”notes Samat. However, the issue of commissions was raised by some developers, and Google's initiative follows the one adopted on January 1 by Apple, which cuts fees to the same extent but is applied based on the total revenues earned from year to year.

If the program had already been active in 2020, Google would have had to give up about $ 587 million, about 5% of the $ 11.6 billion "collected" in commissions, according to estimates by the Sensor observatory Tower, reported by Cnbc. Similarly, Apple would have had to give up 595 million dollars, a higher figure but which accounts for 2.7% of the fees collected on the App Store, equal to 21.7 billion dollars. It is no small matter, if Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, sued the two big techs to ask that their respective app stores allow the use of third-party payment systems, to encourage competition and lower rates. .

"Whether it's 15% or 30%, for apps obtained through Play, developers are forced to use Google's in-app payment services", summarizes a representative of Epic Games, who in the course of the story the popular Fortnite game was withdrawn from the digital store of both giants. Watching what is happening between the American states. In February, North Dakota rejected a law that would have required app stores to open up to the implementation of alternative digital payment systems. A similar law is now under consideration in the Arizona Senate.


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