Google halves the "Play Store tax" levied on about 99% of Android app developers

Google has announced a "service fee reduction" for developers who sell their apps on its all-pervading Play Store for Android. Therefore, the cut of this revenue taken by Mountain View giant for access to this platform will be 15%, as opposed to the traditional 30%.

Then again, the new rate only applies to the first US$1 million made per developer; all takings that pass this milestone each year will be subject to the old 30% levy. Google's vice-president of product management, Sameer Samat, asserts that this will benefit the 99% of developers subject to the new rate in terms of "scaling" (hiring new engineers, for example).

Then again, as even the executive concedes, this kind of expansion does not necessarily stop at $1 million. In any case, the new entry-level 15% service charge is to come into effect on July 1, 2021.

The move, which mirrors an earlier change made by Apple with respect to its own App Store, has met with a lukewarm welcome by opponents of the 2 mobile-services giants' business practices, such as Epic Games. The studio continues to insist that all developers should have more flexibility in terms of where they sell their apps in any case.

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