Google pays manufacturers to avoid alternatives to the Play Store

Google does not want Android smartphone manufacturers to offer alternative application stores to the Play Store. It is for this reason that the group does not hesitate to enter into contracts so that its store is the only one pre-installed on smartphones. This revelation was made during the lawsuit between Epic Games and Google.

Google wants to leave the field open to the Play Store, even if it means paying the manufacturers

Unlike Apple with its iPhone, Google allows alternative application stores. But Epic Games has set out to demonstrate that this is an illusion and that Android is hardly more open than iOS. “Google has erected contractual barriers to competition […] by recognizing that the group risked losing billions of dollars if ever the distribution of Android applications were opened to competition and that competing stores, including an Epic Store, managed to gain ground ”, assures the editor of Fortnite.

Epic’s lawyers base their argument on documents recently made available to them, as part of the legal proceedings launched a year ago, when the publisher tried to bypass both the App Store and the Play Store .

Google has made various agreements with other companies “In order to reduce the risk that other popular game developers no longer use the Google Play Store as a priority to distribute their titles”, cites the complaint. The Silicon Valley giant had estimated, according to documents cited by Epic, that $ 6 billion in Play Store revenue and $ 1.1 billion in profits were at risk for 2022 alone.

Under agreements like the Premier Device Program, Android smartphone makers have received financial compensation from Google in exchange for the exclusivity granted to the Play Store. A few months after the start of this program, “Google acknowledged that it had thus successfully eliminated the risk of contagion”, assures Epic.