Last Update: May 17, 2023, 5:05 PM IST
Play Store policies are changing in India
Google claims that the new changes will help developers and explains how it uses fees to provide the tools.
Google is being forced to make drastic changes to the Play Store billing policy in India following an order issued by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in October last year. The search giant has a monopoly in the Android ecosystem, with over 95 per cent of smartphone users in the country using Android phones.
That means millions of people depend on the Play Store to download apps, which makes it downright attractive to Android developers. Now, with the changes being ordered, Google is publicly sharing the impact of the service fee for developers and how it’s being used to help developers with better tools and more. Google also states that the Play Store service fee is the lowest compared to other major app stores, by which it can be talked about in iOS.
With respect to India, Google claims that only 3 percent of developers sell digital goods or services for which they are required to pay a service fee. And it also highlights the different levels of service charges charged which are as low as 15 per cent. As you can see below, it looks like Google is charging a 15 percent service fee for apps with recurring subscriptions.
To give it better context, the company says that of the total 200,000 Indian developers on the Play Store, less than 60 developers are paying a service fee of more than 15 percent.
And the company says that the fee comes down by another 4 percent if the user pays using a different billing system. Google also makes extensive use of the service fee charged by the developer. “The service fee enables Android and Google Play to provide all developers with the tools and services they need to better serve their users and grow their businesses.”
It is interesting to see Google revealing all these details only after the CCI cracked down on the company last year. The new policy has come into effect from April 26, 2023 and it has started notifying developers about support for third-party billing systems, which will make these changes to get better returns for their apps on the Play Store in India. can do.
This is unlikely to be Google’s last battle with the CCI as the company faces questions about its strategy with Android in the smart TV segment and even Google Maps which has been in India for several years. is the default navigation app for Android users.
