{"id":41188,"date":"2023-11-22T15:46:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T20:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=41188"},"modified":"2023-12-19T11:22:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T16:22:49","slug":"spotifys-google-play-store-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/11\/22\/spotifys-google-play-store-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotify’s Google Play Store Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adi Robertson and Sean Hollister<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Music streaming service Spotify struck a seemingly unique and highly generous deal with Google for Android-based payments, according to new testimony<\/a> in the Epic v. Google<\/em> trial. On the stand, Google head of global partnerships Don Harrison confirmed Spotify paid a 0 percent commission when users chose to buy subscriptions through Spotify’s own system. If the users picked Google as their payment processor, Spotify handed over 4 percent — dramatically less than Google’s more common 15 percent fee<\/a>.<\/p>

Google fought to keep the Spotify numbers private<\/a> during its antitrust fight with Epic, saying they could damage negotiations with other app developers who might want more generous rates. Google’s User Choice Billing program, launched in 2022, is typically described as shaving about 4 percent<\/a> off Google’s Play Store commission if developers use their own payment system, bringing down Google’s 15 percent subscription service fee to more like 11 percent. That often ends up saving developers little or no money since they must foot the cost of payment processing themselves.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Google would not name other developers<\/a> that have gotten the company to agree to more generous rates. During the trial, we learned that Google offered Netflix a special discounted rate of just 10 percent<\/a>, but Netflix refused. Netflix no longer offers an in-app purchase option on Android and no longer pays Google anything to distribute its app as a result.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n