Will Not Roll Back 30% Commission On Play Store Says Google

Highlights:

• Google declines to roll back 30% commission on Play Store
• Google says a significant amount of investment and work has went into the platform
• Developers says the policy is confusing

Google, one of the biggest companies in the world, has clarified at the first policy conference with the developers said that it has taken significant investment and work for the company to build a mobile platform and a store to help developers reach billions of users.

Google has refused to roll back the 30% commission it is charging from the developers for selling digital content and services through the Google Play Store.

Kunal Soni, Director of Business Development, Apps and Games, India, SEA and ANZ, Google Play, said, “We understand how hard developers work to build mobile apps. We know it’s a huge investment. Building a mobile platform and a store to help developers reach billions of users also takes significant work and investment. Our business model makes it possible for us to keep a safe and thriving platform and invest in millions of developers, and a lot goes into making that happen,” as he was answering a question from an Indian developer about whether Google plans to roll back the charge in the coming months.

The conference which was held was the first of a series Google had earlier said it is going to hold with the Indian developers. AS per Google, it has received feedback from many developers that the language in its policy document is confusing, and the company is looking forward to clarifying any queries during the webinar.

Google took pre-submitted questions from developers for the webinar.

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Google has been on the receiving end of a lot of backlash from the Indian start-ups in the recent weeks, especially after the issued a clarification to its pre-existing billing policies earlier. It requires developers who sell digital content and services to mandatorily use Google’s Play Billing system and hence pay the company the 30% commission for these sales.

Founders of startups such as Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Razorpay’s Harshil Mathur, along with others have spoken up against the company. As reported by a leading news agency earlier, the startups are looking to form a lobbying body for which they have already had a meeting with the Competition Commission of India to discuss a possible antitrust case against Google in India.

The US based tech giant Google is also facing major heat globally for the power it wields over various internet-based services through its products. The justice department in the US filed a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the company on 20^th October 2020 for abusing its dominance in digital advertising and search.