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Google to slash developer fees in app store

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 17 Mar 2021

Internet search giant Google will slash by half the service fees it charges developers on its apps store on the first $1 million they earn in a year.

In a blog post yesterday, Sameer Samat, Google VP for product management, says starting on 1 July, the company is reducing the service fee Google Play receives when a developer sells digital goods or services, to 15% for the first $1 million of revenue every developer earns each year.

With this change, Samat points out 99% of developers globally that sell digital goods and services with Play will see a 50% reduction in fees.

He adds 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.

“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 $1 million 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,” says Samat.

He notes this is why Google is making this reduced fee on the first $1 million 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.

“As a platform, we do not succeed unless our partners succeed. Android and Google Play have always listened to our developer partners from around the world and we continue to take their input into account as we build and run the ecosystem. We look forward to seeing more businesses scale to new heights on Android, and to further discussions with our developer community to find new ways to support them technically and economically as they build their businesses.”

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