Amazon app on Android wants to bypass Google commission
It will no longer be possible to purchase digital content in the Amazon app on Android. Not because that is not technically possible, but because Amazon has reversed that option in order not to have to pay a commission to Google.
Amazon Shopping
Amazon is yet another company to disagree with Google’s Play Store rules, with the company withholding a hefty percentage of the money earned from apps in the app store. That is 30 percent. Reason for, for example, Epic Games to provide a game like Fortnite with its own payment system, after which Google decided to remove the game from the app store. Amazon has decided to remove only a certain category from the app to ensure that Google doesn’t get even richer from it.
The BBC writes that the Amazon Shopping app on Android has been modified, so that you can no longer buy digital content in it. Amazon also admits immediately why this is because of the policy of the Google Store. Google likes apps that convert more than $1 million in a year to 30 percent; for apps that don’t make that $1 million, it’s 15 percent.
Digital purchases
With digital purchases you can think of buying ebooks for the Kindle e-reader. Remarkably enough, that is still possible in the Kindle app, because it seems to fall outside the policy of Google. The purchase of digital movies and other content is no longer possible in the Amazon Shopping app, while it is still possible to stream previously purchased digital content.
Amazon hasn’t just made this change to the Android app: the same is true for iOS, which has a policy that is about as strict with rates just as high as the Play Store. In itself you would think that the giant Amazon does not need such tricks, but at the same time it is clear that it is making a statement at the rates that apply at Google and Apple.
Percentages in the Play Store
What do you think: Is it fair for Google to charge 15 to 30 percent of app revenue? Or do you see another revenue model that might be better? Leave your thoughts in the comments below this article.
