In March, Google revealed that developers could finally use payment systems “outside” the Play Store, circumventing the 15% to 30% fee charged on in-app purchases for Android. On Thursday (1st), big tech announced that will begin testing its new policy in 34 countries — not yet including Europe.
The company also opened enrollment in User Choice Billing, as the program that allows third-party payment systems — including the devs themselves — to be called, on the official Android app store. On the other hand, games are not yet eligible for the new policy.
Developers of apps — excluding games — for mobile phones and tablets must fill out a form with data about their developer account and apps where they intend to enable third-party payment services. Spotify is the first to offer an alternative payment method to the Google system.
There are some rules that must be followed so that the solutions can be implemented. If the service handles credit or debit cards, it must comply with PCI-DSS, a set of security standards for transactions in this category. In addition, the platform responsible for the service must fully support the user.
Despite circumventing the Play Store’s up to 30% commission, developers will still have to pay applicable service fees by Google, but that’s only around 4% on the value of an in-app purchase. According to Google, these amounts are applied to “keep investments in Android and Google Play”.
Countries eligible to pilot the new policy include regions of the European Economic Area (Austria, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, among others), Australia, India, Indonesia and Japan. Soon, the novelty should be expanded to more countries and become available in several applications that offer in-app purchases.
With this change in its payment policy, Google responds to constant pressure from the European Union, which is closing in on potential threats to market competition. Another company facing criticism from companies and developers is Apple, whose fees charged on App Store purchases hover around 30%.
The US giant received fines in the Netherlands and other countries for not accepting payments that were not processed by the iOS app store itself. The company even made adjustments to make its ecosystem more open to third-party solutions, but still charging high prices to keep apps on the platform.
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