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Science & Tech.
Mahesh

06/03/24 11:12 AM IST

Why did Google delist some Indian apps from Play Store?

In News
  • Recently,Google announced that it was pulling the apps of almost a dozen firms out of its marketplace for Android apps.
Concern
  • At the heart of the issue is Google’s platform fees.
  • For all in-app purchases that involve a purely digital service — such as an ebook purchase or an OTT streaming subscription — Google collects a fee of anywhere between 11 to 30% per transaction.
  • This fee, Google argues, helps the company pay for Google Play and develop the Android ecosystem.
  • The exact fee paid by each developer varies.
  • If a developer is using Google’s own billing product, and is offering a recurring subscription service, or if they make less than $1 million a year in revenue from in-app payments, the company charges 15%.
  • For app purchases for bigger firms, the amount is 30%.
  • In India and South Korea, where regulatory scrutiny on these fees has been among the most intense, Google collects 11% or 26% in fees if developers choose to use a different payment method.
  • However, Indian developers — like many global counterparts — see these fees as a high price to pay.
  • Some, including Bharat Matrimony and Disney+ Hotstar, approached the courts at different stages to avoid paying the fee altogether.
Other marketplace
  • Apple has not faced similar pushback in India, as relatively fewer Indians use its products.
  • Android, however, dominates the smartphone market, and Google Play is widely seen as the best bet for developers who want to be discovered by consumers.
  • However, both Apple and Google have faced serious international resistance to these fees, and both firms have pushed back strongly against developers’ resistance.
  • The music streaming firm Spotify filed a complaint with the European Commission, after Apple stopped Spotify from telling its users how to pay for its service using a browser to avoid the App Store’s fees.
  • Additionally, Spotify said this was anti-competitive because Apple Music was not subjected to the 30% barrier that was erected for Spotify.
  • Following the complaint, Apple was hit with a €1.84 billion fine by the European Commission, which ruled that it had fined the company over unfair trading conditions.
  • Similarly, in the U.S., Epic Games, the developer of the popular Fortnite franchise, sued Apple as well as Google over the 30% fee.
  • Unlike Apple, Google allows third party app stores around the world, something that gives app developers a little more leeway in avoiding these fees. But Google Play comes installed by default on most Android phones.
Source- The Hindu

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