That’s how much money Google makes with apps

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Google is threatened with several lawsuits in connection with the Play Store in the USA. The court documents show for the first time how much money the Alphabet subsidiary earns with its app marketplace.

Prosecutors from Utah and 36 other US states want to sue Google for alleged antitrust violations. According to the lawsuit, Google is said to have generated $ 11.2 billion in revenue from the app marketplace in 2019. That comes from a report by the news agency Reuters emerged. The gross income is said to have been $ 8.5 billion during this period. Revenues include app sales, in-app sales and advertising revenue through the Play Store. It is the first time that exact Play Store sales figures have been made public. In the company’s quarterly figures, these revenues are aggregated with other sources of income and are not listed individually.

According to the Verge a class action lawsuit against Google could soon be pending in the US. In the complaint, Google is accused, among other things, of having offered the video streaming service Netflix discounted Play Store conditions. Normally, like its competitor Apple, Google keeps 30 percent of the app revenue generated in the Play Store as a fee. According to the complaint, internal Google documents state that there is no other reason for the amount of the fee than to copy the fee structure of Apple’s app store. According to the court reporter Michael Acton Internal calculations are said to have come to the conclusion that Google could offer the Play Store from a fee level of six percent without loss.

The authors of the class action lawsuit accuse Google of protecting the Play Store from alternative app marketplaces on the Android platform by interfering with free competition. According to the terms of use of the Play Store, app developers are prohibited from using information collected via the platform to offer their own customers other products or to redirect them to alternative app stores. According to the complaint, it is therefore “impossible for developers to reach customers directly in order to offer alternatives to the Google Play Store”.

Google responded to the allegations with a statement to the Verge. It states: “All developers are subject to the same guidelines as all other developers, including payment guidelines. We have long had programs that provide developers with expanded resources and investments. These programs are a sign of healthy competition between operating systems and app stores and benefit developers. “

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