Google Play developers will see service fees on their first $US1 ($1.3) million every year reduced from 30% to 15% starting on July 1, Google vice president of product management Sameer Samat announced today.
“Helping developers build sustainable businesses is a core part of Google Play’s mission,” Samat wrote on the Android Developers blog. “We work with partners every day to understand the challenges they face and help them bring their innovative ideas to life. Getting a new app off the ground and into orbit is not easy! We’re always looking for new ways to give them an added boost.”
According to Samat, the change will benefit 99% of Google Play developers.
This move is similar to a policy instituted by Apple late last year, through which the corporation cut App Store service fees in half for devs making less than $US1 ($1.3) million a year. Unlike with Google, however, Apple bumps those fees back up if an app’s revenue exceeds the million-dollar mark.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose company is still engaged in legal battles with both Google and Apple over in-app purchasing restrictions and revenue cuts on Google Play and the App Store, criticised the move on Twitter.
“It’s scary for the tech industry to see Google and Apple aligning their monopolistic policies in near lock-step,” Sweeney wrote earlier today. “In a free app market, rates would be much lower for all due to competition, and not subject to their divide-and-conquer tactics.”
“It’s a self-serving gambit: the far majority of developers will get this new 15% rate and thus be less inclined to fight, but the far majority of revenue is in apps with the 30% rate,” Sweeney added in a follow-up tweet. “So Google and Apple can continue to inflate prices and fleece consumers with their app taxes.”
(h/t The Verge)
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