Google is following Apple’s lead, cutting its Play Store fees in half for developers that earn less than $1 million per year.
Google and Apple have been under fire for their app store policies. What was once hailed as a gamer-changer, and praised for simplifying the business aspect of development, is increasingly viewed with suspicion and resentment.
Last year, Apple took the first step toward easing the fees developers were charged, cutting its commission from 30% to 15% for developers earning less than $1 million a year. With Apple’s small business program, however, once a developer crosses that threshold, they are removed from the program and charged the full commission.
Google has now announced its own initiative, also cutting its commission from 30% to 15% for developers earning less than $1 million annually. Google’s program has one major advantage over Apple’s, however. Rather than kicking a developer out of the program once they cross that threshold, Google continues to only charge 15% on the first million, while charging 30% on everything beyond the first million.
Sameer Samat, VP, Product Management, explained the company’s logic:
While these investments are most critical when developers are in the earlier stages of growth, scaling an app doesn’t stop once a partner has reached $1M in revenue — we’ve heard from our partners making $2M, $5M and even $10M a year that their services are still on a path to self-sustaining orbit. This is why we are making this reduced fee on the first $1M of total revenue earned each year available to every Play developer, regardless of size. We believe this is a fair approach that aligns with Google’s broader mission to help all developers succeed. We look forward to sharing full details in the coming months.
Google is to be commended for taking the approach it is. Hopefully Apple will follow suit.
