The Platform Giants

If you’re an app developer or someone who wants to reach a wide audience via an app, you’ll be familiar with the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. These behemoth platforms provide the gateways which all businesses and organisations need to pass through to reach the huge number of mobile devices out there. The two stores host a combined 5 million+ apps and in 2020, they raked in a combined $110 billion+ USD.

We know, $110 billion dollars is a hard number to wrap your head around, but – it’s a lot! Luckily, Google is following Apple’s lead and are reducing their app store commission for small businesses from July 2021. This means 99% of developers that sell digital goods and services with Google Play will see a 50% reduction in fees!

Apple App Store

Google Play Store

 

Google Play Drops Commission

Starting on July 1, 2021 Google Play is reducing the service fee they receive when a developer sells digital goods or services to 15% for the first $1M (USD) of revenue every developer earns each year. With this change, 99% of developers globally that sell digital goods and services with Play will see a 50% reduction in fees. These are funds that can help developers scale up at a critical phase of their growth by hiring more engineers, adding to their marketing staff, increasing server capacity, and more.

“Helping developers build sustainable businesses is a core part of Google Play’s mission. We work with partners every day to understand the challenges they face and help them bring their innovative ideas to life. Getting a new app off the ground and into orbit is not easy! To aid their quest for growth we provide a broad range of support, from powerful marketing tools and actionable data in the Play Console, education via Play Academy, best practices and thought leadership resources, programs such as the Indie Games Festival, Indie Corner, and accelerator programs around the world. We’re always looking for new ways to give them an added boost.” – Sameer Samat, VP Product Management, Android & Google Play

“While these investments are most critical when developers are in the earlier stages of growth, scaling an app doesn’t stop once a partner has reached $1M in revenue — we’ve heard from our partners making $2M, $5M and even $10M a year that their services are still on a path to self-sustaining orbit. This is why we are making this reduced fee on the first $1M of total revenue earned each year available to every Play developer, regardless of size. We believe this is a fair approach that aligns with Google’s broader mission to help all developers succeed. We look forward to sharing full details in the coming months.

As a platform we do not succeed unless our partners succeed. Android and Google Play have always listened to our developer partners from around the world and we continue to take their input into account as we build and run the ecosystem. We look forward to seeing more businesses scale to new heights on Android, and to further discussions with our developer community to find new ways to support them technically and economically as they build their businesses.” – Android Developers Blog

Monetising content with Locatify Apps

Locatify customers who provide tours and games via their own branded apps can monetise app content using in-app purchases for both Android (Play Store) and iOS (App Store) devices. This requires customers to have their own App Store and Play Store developer accounts, but tour in-app purchase prices can be managed via the Locatify CMS.

Contact Sales to discuss monetising your app content.