Google's Cutting Play Store Subscription Fees In Half

While developers make money from selling their apps, subscription fees, and ad revenue, they still have to pay the platform to host their software. Developers have to pay Google to host their apps on the Play Store, and they even have to give the company a cut of their subscription revenue. According to a blog post, however, it seems that the company will be cutting its subscription fees in half starting next year.

Google will cut Play Store subscription fees from 30% to 15%

When an app charges its users a recurring subscription fee, Google will take a cut from that revenue, which is to be expected. The company will take 30% of the revenue for the first year, then it will knock it down to 15% from then on. Google will only be charging 15% from the get-go however.

In the blog post, Google brought up a good point and a big challenge that developers have to face: customer churn. This is basically the process of losing customers. Many customers eventually leave a service once they no longer have a need for it or if it becomes too expensive to keep. This obviously equates to a reduction in revenue.

During the first year, such a high fee coupled with customer churn can typically lead to a massive reduction in profit. Having lower fees will hopefully encourage other developers to jump on the platform.

The reduced fees will start in January

App developers will still need to pay the 30% fees for the rest of 2021, as the reduced fees will go into effect on January 1st, 2022. Google didn’t state whether subscription services established until then will still be at 30% for a full year or if all of the fees will suddenly drop to 15%.

The Pixel 6 phones are available to order

Google really flipped the script with its Pixel 6 phones. This generation marks several firsts for the phone line: this is the first Pixel phone to come with an under-display fingerprint scanner, the first to use a Google-made chip, and the first Pixel with a larger camera sensor.

The Pixel 6 has a 6.4-inch 1080p+ AMOLED display that can run at 90Hz. It has 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, a 50-megapixel camera, and a 4,616mAh battery. This phone starts at a low $599.

The Pixel 6 Pro has a 6.7-inch 1440p AMOLED display that can run at 120Hz. This phone has 12GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, the same 50-megapixel camera, and a 5,000mAh battery. This phone starts at $899.