The topic Google opens the Play Store to external billing in the US, UK, and Europe next week is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
Google today announced that it will open up the Play Store to external payments starting on June 30 in the US, UK, and Europe.
In a post on the Android Developers Blog, Google details changes being made to Play Store billing rules on Android, changes made in the aftermath of a years-long legal dispute with Epic Games that (mostly) wrapped up earlier this year.
Today’s announcement sets a start date on lower fees and the ability for Android developers to use external billing alongside Play Store distribution – June 30. That’s when the updates kick in for major markets including the US, UK, and European Economic Area.
The new policy sees developers paying 10% fees on their first $1,000,000 in annual earnings regardless of billing method, whether that be Google Play Billing, an alternate built-in system, or external links for billing outside of the app. That’s well down from the 30% cut that was standard when this whole dispute first began.
After the first $1,000,000, Google’s fees go up for transactions other than auto-renewing subscriptions, with “new installs” seeing a lower cut than “existing installs,” the latter referring to users that had the app installed prior to this policy change. There’s also a 5% fee from the use of Google Play Billing, should developers opt to use that.
Regardless of whether you use Google Play’s billing system, alternative billing, or external web links, the service fee starts at 10% on your first $1M (USD) in annual earnings. This 10% service fee also applies to all auto-renewing subscriptions…
For other transactions, the service fee will be determined by whether the transacting user’s install is new or existing relative to the regional rollout date:
For transactions that use Google Play’s billing system, an additional billing fee applies. In the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Economic Area, the billing fee is set at 5%. We’ll announce billing fee details for other markets soon. For transactions processed via alternative billing or external web links, the billing fee does not apply.
Fees also drop for apps that qualify for Google’s “Level Up” or “Apps Experience” programs, which encourage developers to better support alternate Android form factors, having high quality and low crash rates, and support features that Google recommends. Those programs kick in later in September.