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Here's the next achievable goal to fight for: I want the fee structure Microsoft provides on the Microsoft Store. https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/20

Here's the next achievable goal to fight for: I want the fee structure Microsoft provides on the Microsoft Store. https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2018/05/07/a-new-microsoft-store-revenue-share-is-coming/ https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2018/05/07/a-new-... Microsoft takes only a 5% cut if customers click on a link on my website with my referral code, taking them directly to the store details page. Otherwise, they take a 15% cut. > consumer applications (not including games) sold in Microsoft Store will deliver to developers 95% of the revenue earned from the purchase of your application or any in-app products in your application, when a customer uses a deep link to get to and purchase your application. When Microsoft delivers you a customer through any other method, such as in a collection on Microsoft Store or any other owned Microsoft properties, and purchases your application, you will receive 85% of the revenue earned from the purchase of your application or any in-app products in your application

joebob42 6y ago
One other case where imo the 5% should apply: if someone goes to the store and searches for your app by exact name. Ie if I go to the store and search "Netflix", the store hasn't helped me discover that product.
- tweetle_beetle 6y ago
  That makes sense on paper, but in a world of instant search, search completion and search suggestion, doesn't it become a bit murky?
- curryst 6y ago
  They have, in a way, by providing the index you use to find it. They're your portal to apps in a sense. Frankly it makes more sense to me to charge more when people find your app through the app store. It makes less sense to me that they take 15% if someone Googles your app to get the app store link. They didn't even use the app store search to find it.
vishnumohandas 6y ago
> 5% That’s less than the Stripe tax!
- athirnuaimi 6y ago
  Stripe has real costs because it has to interact with the visa and MasterCard networks. The app stores basically have zero incremental costs. They just let you download a file from a directory of listings
  - deergomoo 6y ago
    They host the files and pay for the traffic, that's not insignificant at the scale of Google and Apple, even considering their enormous size. There was a story a couple of years back about how Apple's AWS bill was $30 million/month, I'd bet a large chunk of that is the App Store.
    - himujjal 6y ago
      only 30 million? considering how much apple makes in profits from their app store thats a lot less
      - Sebb767 6y ago
        That's only servers - they still need developers, managers, reviewers etc.. Apple surely does not make a loss, but the server bill is probably a negligible part of the cost.
        oblio 6y ago
        Poor Apple: > In 2020, customers spent an estimated 72.3 billion U.S. dollars on on in-app purchases, subscriptions, and premium apps in the Apple App Store. The App Store is a money printer for Apple, that's how low their operating expenses are. It's rent-seeking at its best, abusive landlords would be proud of them :-)
    - 6y ago
bogwog 6y ago
That's a nice fee structure, but honestly I don't care if Google and Apple increase the fee to 90% as long as there are alternative stores that can realistically compete against GPlay and the App Store. That means no scary warnings and endless dialogs filled with FUD about malware and stealing personal data, or requiring non-technical users to understand and enable a checkbox hidden deep inside the settings app, or dedicating full-time teams of security researchers to finding and irresponsibly disclosing vulnerabilities in competing stores, among other things. Because when there's competition, a fee structure like what the Microsoft Store has will naturally appear.

joebob42 6y ago

One other case where imo the 5% should apply: if someone goes to the store and searches for your app by exact name. Ie if I go to the store and search "Netflix", the store hasn't helped me discover that product.

tweetle_beetle 6y ago
That makes sense on paper, but in a world of instant search, search completion and search suggestion, doesn't it become a bit murky?
curryst 6y ago
They have, in a way, by providing the index you use to find it. They're your portal to apps in a sense. Frankly it makes more sense to me to charge more when people find your app through the app store. It makes less sense to me that they take 15% if someone Googles your app to get the app store link. They didn't even use the app store search to find it.

vishnumohandas 6y ago

> 5% That’s less than the Stripe tax!

athirnuaimi 6y ago
Stripe has real costs because it has to interact with the visa and MasterCard networks. The app stores basically have zero incremental costs. They just let you download a file from a directory of listings
- deergomoo 6y ago
  They host the files and pay for the traffic, that's not insignificant at the scale of Google and Apple, even considering their enormous size. There was a story a couple of years back about how Apple's AWS bill was $30 million/month, I'd bet a large chunk of that is the App Store.
  - himujjal 6y ago
    only 30 million? considering how much apple makes in profits from their app store thats a lot less
    - Sebb767 6y ago
      That's only servers - they still need developers, managers, reviewers etc.. Apple surely does not make a loss, but the server bill is probably a negligible part of the cost.
      - oblio 6y ago
        Poor Apple: > In 2020, customers spent an estimated 72.3 billion U.S. dollars on on in-app purchases, subscriptions, and premium apps in the Apple App Store. The App Store is a money printer for Apple, that's how low their operating expenses are. It's rent-seeking at its best, abusive landlords would be proud of them :-)
  - 6y ago

bogwog 6y ago

That's a nice fee structure, but honestly I don't care if Google and Apple increase the fee to 90% as long as there are alternative stores that can realistically compete against GPlay and the App Store. That means no scary warnings and endless dialogs filled with FUD about malware and stealing personal data, or requiring non-technical users to understand and enable a checkbox hidden deep inside the settings app, or dedicating full-time teams of security researchers to finding and irresponsibly disclosing vulnerabilities in competing stores, among other things. Because when there's competition, a fee structure like what the Microsoft Store has will naturally appear.