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Calculating costs here is tricky. Do you only include the cost for Google running running the Play Store infrastructure itself, or do you also include the costs
by bskap 8y ago
Calculating costs here is tricky. Do you only include the cost for Google running running the Play Store infrastructure itself, or do you also include the costs of developing and running Google Play Services? What about the costs Google has developing Android itself, which is otherwise given away for free?
- adrian_mrd 8y agoGood points. Part of the problem with the debate at this point is that there is little to no transparency about any of those costs. Android is obviously a larger ‘strategic’ play so I would argue that should be excluded and Google Play Services are also likely to either be ‘strategic’ plays (ie Apple offers music, so do we; Customers want movies, let’s offer them too, etc) or potentially revenue positive. If Google’s and Apple’s accountants can setup magical tax systems across the world - they could also provide some useful data points about the true costs of running their App stores. As a specific example, I’d be interested to know, what the hosting and bandwidth costs are for the App Stores (likely heavily subsidised given both Apple and Google run cloud platforms including hosting). At the moment, there is next to no transparency except the “30%” cut and some high-level info in their quarterly financial reports.