>How is this legal that if I want to publish an Android app on Play Market and charge for subscriptions, I must use Google Play Billing and pay 30% to Google? This is insane
It's bad for the developer, sure, but what exactly is "insane" or "illegal" about it? They have created a product marketplace, and they let you sell there, and you must abide by their rules.
If you want to sell on Gumroad or similar services you also need to use their payment processor of choice, and give them a cut. If you want to sell on Ebay, you also need to use their payment processors of choice (and originally, iirc, you only had the option to use PayPal) and give them a cut.
And of course check the rules for selling your console game. They are 10x more restrive, and have been since forever. Not only you have to use the console markers marketplace, billing system, and pay a cut, for many wont even be able to do that, unless they accept your game.
The thing is, you don't "have" to sell in Play Market - even if it was the only marketplace for Android, it would still not be some basic necessity of life that you sell apps for Android. You could always find another trade, or sell PC software, or whatever. In other words, a marketplace for a mobile OS is not exactly a public utility.
I wish folks would realize this has knock on effects for them--you're paying 30% more for things (or 15%, if it's a small developer). Is the "safety and curation" of the Play Store (or Apple App Store) worth 30% more to you?
(Full disclosure: I moved my apps off the Apple App Store/Google Play Store earlier this year. I wasn't seeing any value with distributing on them. After leaving, I've had better interactions with my users and almost all of the folks who discover my apps end up upgrading to the paid version. While my installs are lower, my conversion rate has never been higher.)
There are alternatives to Play market. Play doesn't work at all in China. There is Huawei, Samsung and Xiaomi store, and probably others. Users can also install F-Droid or any other alternative store app.
I don't see why it should be illegal to have fees and terms of use on your platform. Don't like it? Don't use the platform. You're not entitled to others' work.
Sometimes, I feel it's a little unfair to products that directly compete with one of their SaaS offerings.
Take Google or Apple Photos, for example. Due to this 30% cut, they always have an unfair advantage when it comes to pricing.
In the case of Apple Services, we don't know if, under the hood, they are using undocumented APIs or whitelisting internal apps to provide a better experience when it comes to background work. (Context: Apple claims that the iPhone performs backups and a bunch of other tasks during the night while the phone is charging. Personally, I haven't seen any app perform these long-running backups as smoothly as their in-house apps.)
> This is insane (because there are no alternatives to Play Market).
This is not true? Huawei uses android but is banned from the US so Google can't take their money. Guess what... you don't need Google Play to distribute apps.
I thought a big benefit of Android was that you don't have to distribute your apps through the one official App Store.
Under a million you can get it to 15% by applying to the small business program.
In most cases they allow users also to purchase subscriptions outside their app store, but you can't link directly to those purchases from within the app.
It really sucks that we ended up with only two mobile OS's.
I am often directed out of the app to make payments via a browser (particularly well known streaming apps).
Well you are using their store-front and real estate at their shopping mall.
There are plenty of alternatives to the play store. They just don’t get the same amount of eyeballs or require slightly more technical users.
Why not raise your price to cover the cost?
Raising prices usually feels happier than reducing costs and half the customers at twice the price will probably reduce support costs as a side effect.
Good luck.
Wait until you find out about apple. They are worse in every way.
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You might be interested in the upcoming Digital Markets Act by the EU that is built to address this among other things.
https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/index_en
Notably you can check out their list of gatekeeper services
https://digital-markets-act-cases.ec.europa.eu/gatekeepers