Google plans to cut Play Store fees for subscription-based apps next year

Google mentioned it plans to decrease the fee it collects from subscription-based apps to fifteen% from 30% on Google Play beginning subsequent 12 months. The announcement comes following criticism from regulators and app builders over its charge construction.

In a blog post on Thursday, Google mentioned it has made “necessary modifications” together with shifting past a one-size suits all service charge mannequin in direction of “a number of packages designed to help and encourage our numerous app ecosystem.” The brand new construction will go into impact on January 1st subsequent 12 months.

This newest concession comes after Google reduced its commission to 15% from 30% for the first million dollars in revenue earned by app developers from gross sales on the Google Play retailer per 12 months. These modifications have been made in March, and adopted Apple, which had  made a similar move  final November with its rival app retailer. 

Ebooks and on-demand music streaming providers can even get a lowered service charge of 10%. However the largest video games won’t profit from the most recent coverage change as they have an inclination to depend on in-app purchases versus subscriptions. As an alternative, gaming apps will likely be topic to the 15% fee for the primary $1 million earned then be topic to a 30% fee. 

Corporations that develop apps for Google’s Play retailer welcomed the information.

“The pricing change they’ve introduced will permit us to raised put money into our merchandise and additional empower customers to confidently join on-line.” mentioned Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and CEO, Bumble Inc.

“That is nice information!” mentioned Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo. “This discount in subscription charges will assist Duolingo speed up our mission of offering universally out there training.”

In accordance with analytics agency Sensor Tower, Google collected $11.6 billion in in-app purchases globally in 2020 from Google Play retailer spending of $38.8 billion.