Google has announced a new regulation for the so-called service fee, which is incurred for sales in Google’s Play Store. So far, developers have had to pay 30% to Google every time they sell an app or make an in-app purchase. From July 1, 2021, this proportion will be reduced to 15%.
However, the new system will be made up of two sections. Up to the first million dollars of turnover, Google will retain 15%. If a developer exceeds that barrier, the Californian company will keep 15% of its first million but will retain 30% of the rest of its turnover. Like, if a developer invoices two million dollars in a year, Google will keep 450,000 dollars (15% of the first million plus 30% of the rest of its turnover).
The regulation is primarily intended to help individual developers and smaller studios to invest their money in their own company and not to pay it to Google.
“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.” — writes Google in a blog post.
Google is not the only company that has decided to reduce the fees it charges developers. In November, Apple also announced that it would cut the commissions it charges to developers who bill less than a million dollars by up to 15%.
