Google slashing Play Store cut to 15 percent for first $1 million in annual developer revenue

Following in Apple’s footsteps, Google has revealed that it will reduce Play Store fees to 15 percent from 30 percent for developer revenue earned through the platform up to $1 million USD (roughly $1.2 million CAD).

Google’s blog post states that 99 percent of developers that sell goods and services in the Play store will experience a “50 percent reduction in fees.”

Google says it selected the $1 million USD threshold because it’s “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.” The change will go into effect as of July 1st.

Apple made a similar change in November of last year, cutting its revenue share fee to 15 percent for developers making less than $1 million USD in annual revenue. Once a developer makes over $1 million, they’re moved back up to the 30 percent rate.

“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,” writes Google.

It’s scary for the tech industry to that see Google and Apple aligning their monopolistic policies in near lock-step. In a free app market, rates would be much lower for all due to competition, and not subject to their divide-and-conquer tactics.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) March 16, 2021

These policy changes come as both Google’s and Apple’s App Stores are under heavy criticism, in part spurred by Epic Games’ Fortnite-focused antitrust lawsuits against the two tech giants. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney quickly responded negatively to Google’s move, saying that tech giants are “aligning their monopolistic policies in near lock-step.”

While this change to the way the Play Store typically operates likely won’t satisfy large-scale developers, indie studios will be happy to be able to fork over less revenue to Google.

Source: Google