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Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free

708 points · 296 comments · ezst

  1. pi-victor · · focus · HN ↗
    I think it bothers OP less that they take a 15% tax than the fact that google provides terrible support for their own play store. If they would take that tax and provide good feedback and speedy version reviews, nobody would ever complain - it is expected to pay something since the play store doesn't run on good thoughts and prayers. But because they're a monopoly (or a duopoly if you count apple, which is a different platform altogether) they can afford to act this way.
    1. inputmice · · focus · HN ↗
      Author here: Indeed, 15% is fine. They do provide some services. They provide the CDN for downloading the APK. They handle sales taxes in the various countries, which would be a PITA to handle yourself. Similar-ish services like Patreon charge a fee too. The 30% they charged a couple of years back was bad. But I could live with 15% if the support were anything other than zero.
      1. rkangel · · focus · HN ↗
        The problem is that it ISN'T a fee for services as it should be. Their platform power means that they can levy a tax, and they don't feel the need to do anything on exchange for that.
        1. lemagedurage · · focus · HN ↗
          Yep, I'd hypothetically economically gladly build an alternative app store charging "only" 5% on app revenue. The blocker would be that Google has a hold on what store is installed by default on Android. Apple even more so. This is hardly a fair market.
          1. brainwad · · focus · HN ↗
            There are other app stores on Android, e.g. OEM ones like the Galaxy store. The latter doesn't really compete on price though - 20% cut of one time payments and 15% of subscriptions. I think the Android app stores anchor to the iOS app store prices to piggy back on Apple's monopoly power - devs are used to having to pay Apple that much, so they will not resist if you charge the same.
            1. xethos · · focus · HN ↗
              > they will not resist if you charge the same.

              Sure, but they also won't generally bother if the fees are the same as the installed-on-every-device Play Store

              1. brainwad · · focus · HN ↗
                Yeah, but they probably also won't bother even if it's free, so it's optimal for the OEMs to rent seek rather than compete.
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