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Really a meaningless gesture if you ask me, reluctantly following Apple’s lead. A meager attempt to get regulators off their back. I believe Google & Apple sho

by 40four 6y ago

Really a meaningless gesture if you ask me, reluctantly following Apple’s lead. A meager attempt to get regulators off their back. I believe Google & Apple should not be allowed to take a percentage at all. It should be a tiered system of fees, like a subscription or something. Sure, their systems help distribute and promote discovery of our apps, so let us pay for that. It should be a yearly fee appropriate for this service. The idea they they deserve to hover up a percentage of everyone’s business in perpetuity is completely bonkers. They don’t deserve it. But they do deserve to be paid for running the app store infrastructure and services.

sumedh 6y ago
> so let us pay for that. and what would be the fair price for that?
- 40four 6y ago
  I have no idea. Whatever price Google or Apple determines they could run the service and make a profit. Apple already charges $100 a year, that seems like a reasonable starting point. If your business takes off, and you’re using more resources of the store, or you want to promote you app, you pay more. It could be tiered price levels depending on your usage and needs. Maybe once you cross a certain threshold of downloads then you have to bump up to the next tier. Maybe there would be an enterprise level for huge companies. Imagine if all developers on Google play started off paying $100 a year, that alone would weed out a lot of the BS & discourage low effort bad actors.
  - sumedh 6y ago
    > Whatever price Google or Apple determines they could run the service and make a profit. Isn't that what they are doing now? You are essentially arguing that those giants should take a small profit instead of huge profit.
    - 40four 6y ago
      Not not at all. What they are doing now is taking advantage of their position of power. I think you’re being difficult on purpose. You know what I’m arguing. You don’t agree and that’s ok. But please don’t act like you don’t get it, and twist my point. I’m arguing that what they are taking is not worth what they are offering. A 30% cut of your hard earned business is loan shark and pawn broker territory. Ok, now it’s 15% until you get really successful. I don’t care 10%, 5%. I believe any percentage makes no sense for the the service they are providing. This isn’t ‘Shark Tank’ the TV show. App developers aren’t coming and asking for loans to fund their startup idea. That would be the type of scenario where it would be expected to take a percentage of the company. We give you ‘X’ amount of dollars up front to fund your company, but we get ‘X’ percent of the money you make. Hell, even Y Combinator is in this business. That’s when you should get a percentage. Not when hey, we run the only app distribution service and we’re going to keep it that way. Now, I’ve ranted way too much in this point :) and I think I’ve made good clear points. Could you please provide good reasons why you think 15%-30% of your whole business is rightfully Google’s to take? I’m willing to be persuaded.
      - sumedh 6y ago
        > Could you please provide good reasons why you think 15%-30% of your whole business is rightfully Google’s to take? Google and Apple are running a business, there is no right and wrong here. If you dont like you can go and develop apps for Windows phones or some other phones, oh wait, they all failed. Now the problem is Google/Apple can charge these prices is because they dont allow side loading, Google allows it but makes the experience terrible. If Side loading is easy or they allow competing App Stores on their platform, Devs will move away from the official app stores. So if you want to attack Google/Apple that is a legitimate point, attacking their 30% cut is not.
heavyset_go 6y ago
> I believe Google & Apple should not be allowed to take a percentage at all. It should be a tiered system of fees, like a subscription or something. Sure, their systems help distribute and promote discovery of our apps, so let us pay for that. It should be a yearly fee appropriate for this service. We should be able to pay for it, but we should also be able to choose not to use it, and bypass the Apple/Google duopoly on mobile app distribution for more competitive options, which we currently can't do. Apple bans all mobile app distribution competitors, and Google makes sure that competitors cannot compete with the Play Store on feature parity, either.

by 40four 6y ago

sumedh 6y ago

> so let us pay for that. and what would be the fair price for that?

40four 6y ago
I have no idea. Whatever price Google or Apple determines they could run the service and make a profit. Apple already charges $100 a year, that seems like a reasonable starting point. If your business takes off, and you’re using more resources of the store, or you want to promote you app, you pay more. It could be tiered price levels depending on your usage and needs. Maybe once you cross a certain threshold of downloads then you have to bump up to the next tier. Maybe there would be an enterprise level for huge companies. Imagine if all developers on Google play started off paying $100 a year, that alone would weed out a lot of the BS & discourage low effort bad actors.
- sumedh 6y ago
  > Whatever price Google or Apple determines they could run the service and make a profit. Isn't that what they are doing now? You are essentially arguing that those giants should take a small profit instead of huge profit.
  - 40four 6y ago
    Not not at all. What they are doing now is taking advantage of their position of power. I think you’re being difficult on purpose. You know what I’m arguing. You don’t agree and that’s ok. But please don’t act like you don’t get it, and twist my point. I’m arguing that what they are taking is not worth what they are offering. A 30% cut of your hard earned business is loan shark and pawn broker territory. Ok, now it’s 15% until you get really successful. I don’t care 10%, 5%. I believe any percentage makes no sense for the the service they are providing. This isn’t ‘Shark Tank’ the TV show. App developers aren’t coming and asking for loans to fund their startup idea. That would be the type of scenario where it would be expected to take a percentage of the company. We give you ‘X’ amount of dollars up front to fund your company, but we get ‘X’ percent of the money you make. Hell, even Y Combinator is in this business. That’s when you should get a percentage. Not when hey, we run the only app distribution service and we’re going to keep it that way. Now, I’ve ranted way too much in this point :) and I think I’ve made good clear points. Could you please provide good reasons why you think 15%-30% of your whole business is rightfully Google’s to take? I’m willing to be persuaded.
    - sumedh 6y ago
      > Could you please provide good reasons why you think 15%-30% of your whole business is rightfully Google’s to take? Google and Apple are running a business, there is no right and wrong here. If you dont like you can go and develop apps for Windows phones or some other phones, oh wait, they all failed. Now the problem is Google/Apple can charge these prices is because they dont allow side loading, Google allows it but makes the experience terrible. If Side loading is easy or they allow competing App Stores on their platform, Devs will move away from the official app stores. So if you want to attack Google/Apple that is a legitimate point, attacking their 30% cut is not.

heavyset_go 6y ago

> I believe Google & Apple should not be allowed to take a percentage at all. It should be a tiered system of fees, like a subscription or something. Sure, their systems help distribute and promote discovery of our apps, so let us pay for that. It should be a yearly fee appropriate for this service. We should be able to pay for it, but we should also be able to choose not to use it, and bypass the Apple/Google duopoly on mobile app distribution for more competitive options, which we currently can't do. Apple bans all mobile app distribution competitors, and Google makes sure that competitors cannot compete with the Play Store on feature parity, either.