Google Play Store Drops Fees on Subscriptions and Content
Sameer Samat (MacRumors, Hacker News):
To help support the specific needs of developers offering subscriptions, starting on January 1, 2022, we’re decreasing the service fee for all subscriptions on Google Play from 30% to 15%, starting from day one.
For developers offering subscriptions, this means that first-year subscription fees will be cut in half.
This applies to all developers, whereas the previous cut to 15% was for after the first year or for non-subscription revenue below $1 million.
Ebooks and on-demand music streaming services, where content costs account for the majority of sales, will now be eligible for a service fee as low as 10%.
Meanwhile, Apple recently implied that the App Store Small Business program is only temporary.
Previously:
- Microsoft Store Supports Alternate App Stores
- Why Apple Should Compromise With Antitrust Regulators
- Apple News Partner Program
- App Store Fee Reductions and Apple Strategy Tax
- App Store Small Business Program With 15% Fee
- Apple Video Partner Program
- App Store Subscriptions
Update (2021-10-25): See also: Hacker News.
Subs pay 15%
IAP’s pay 30%…so every Game has a 15% incentive to turn their gem IAP’s to a subscription.
There is also a good discussion in the 10/22 episode of Dithering.
3 Comments RSS · Twitter
@Kevin Yeah, we don’t know, but they created doubt where there had been none.
This doesn't cover in-app purchases (games), so it doesn't feel genuine. It's a PR move meant to create a narrative for the media that Google Pray is helping developers.
In reality, all the revenue coming from game IAP -- and it's substantial -- is what many indie game developers need to stay afloat, in a very fickle industry with fewer willing investors and skyrocketing production costs.
Don't drink the kool-aid!🔥
I think you may be reading that implication into it. It's one of those things where Apple can say "look we agreed to this thing" where the plan all along was to continue it indefinitely. And/or this is them saying that even if we decided at some point to discontinue it, we won't for at least three years, not necessarily that we already had an end date in mind.
Obviously none of us know what they're thinking, though.