Google cuts Play Store fees by half – Times of India

BENGALURU: Google has slashed commissions it takes from Android developers that sell in-app digital goods and services on the Play Store. Effective July, Google Play is reducing the service fee it receives to 15% from 30% for the first $1 million of revenue every developer earns each year.
“With this change, 99% of developers globally that sell digital goods and services with Play will see a 50% reduction in fees. These are funds that can help developers scale up at a critical phase of their growth by hiring more engineers, adding to their marketing staff, increasing server capacity, and more,” Google said in a blogpost on Tuesday.
Research firm Sensor Tower’s data showed Google Play earned $38.6 billion in revenue in 2020.
“For the thousands of developers in India that are already using Play to sell digital goods, they can start receiving the benefit of this change as soon as it goes into effect in July,” Google said.
Google said 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 $1million in revenue.
“We’ve heard from our partners making $2 million, $5 million and even $10 million a year that their services are still on a path to self-sustaining orbit. Therefore, we are making this reduced fee on the first $1 million of total revenue earned each year available to every Play developer that uses the Play billing system, regardless of size,” it said.
Once developers confirm some basic information to help google understand any associated accounts they have and ensure we apply the 15% properly, this discount will automatically renew each year.
Last year, Google clarified the requirements of Google Play’s Payments policy, where it explained that the service fee for Google Play is only applicable to developers who offer in-app sale of digital goods and services. More than 97% of apps globally do not sell digital goods, and therefore do not pay any service fee.