4 ms·

I strongly believe that Nintendo, Sony, & Xbox should also disclose their rake. However, it's also well understood that they take heavy losses on consoles that

I strongly believe that Nintendo, Sony, & Xbox should also disclose their rake. However, it's also well understood that they take heavy losses on consoles that are made up on game margins. The same cannot be said for Google and Apple. Retailers have substantial costs associated with distributing products and physical shelf space is a scarce resource. There are, by comparison, no limits to the number of apps on Apple and Google's "stores" and we know that the costs of maintaining them are quite low because the respective business units are wildly profitable. The points you raised are the rather beguiling false equivalencies that have been propagated largely by people with a vested interest in preserving this system and averting scrutiny.

Talanes 5y ago
Exactly how profitable does a market need to be to require showing margins to the customer? Where are you drawing the threshold?
- rebelos 5y ago
  Who said anything about a requirement? It suffices to make it illegal to prohibit disclosing the fee. Businesses can decide if they want to do so. The point is that this 'invisible rake' model is being exploited to nullify free market forces in service of obscene profit. Many businesses (not just Apple and Google) have realized they can leverage this to make considerably more money than they otherwise might.
  - Talanes 5y ago
    >I strongly believe that Nintendo, Sony, & Xbox should also disclose their rake. Sorry, between this line and not realizing you were also the GP commenter, I assumed you were suggesting the markets be forced to disclose the rake pro-actively themselves. Making it illegal to prohibit disclosing the fee is great, and at that point I don't even think you need to make the case that the industry is different than others. It's not the same as the cost, but plenty of items have an msrp listed on their packaging. You know if your Arizona Iced Tea is being sold at a higher than usual mark-up because it's not $1. (Disclosure: I live in San Francisco and have no idea whether Arizona is actually still a dollar in other places.)
    - rebelos 5y ago
      Ah my bad for the confusing wording on that. And yes agreed.

Talanes 5y ago

Exactly how profitable does a market need to be to require showing margins to the customer? Where are you drawing the threshold?

rebelos 5y ago
Who said anything about a requirement? It suffices to make it illegal to prohibit disclosing the fee. Businesses can decide if they want to do so. The point is that this 'invisible rake' model is being exploited to nullify free market forces in service of obscene profit. Many businesses (not just Apple and Google) have realized they can leverage this to make considerably more money than they otherwise might.
- Talanes 5y ago
  >I strongly believe that Nintendo, Sony, & Xbox should also disclose their rake. Sorry, between this line and not realizing you were also the GP commenter, I assumed you were suggesting the markets be forced to disclose the rake pro-actively themselves. Making it illegal to prohibit disclosing the fee is great, and at that point I don't even think you need to make the case that the industry is different than others. It's not the same as the cost, but plenty of items have an msrp listed on their packaging. You know if your Arizona Iced Tea is being sold at a higher than usual mark-up because it's not $1. (Disclosure: I live in San Francisco and have no idea whether Arizona is actually still a dollar in other places.)
  - rebelos 5y ago
    Ah my bad for the confusing wording on that. And yes agreed.