Sources: Google to issue new guidelines emphasizing that developers must use Google's own billing service for in-app purchases and subscriptions in Play Store
BloombergMark Gurman
Context & Ripple Effects
Google is closing the biggest loophole in Play Store economics. As [[a:958396|Netflix, Spotify, and other major subscription apps have been bypassing Google's 30% in-app purchase cut]], the new billing mandate targets exactly that revenue leakage, with roughly a year of runway before enforcement.
The move lands in the middle of mounting antitrust pressure — weeks later, dozens of state attorneys general sued, and Google responded by granting extension requests a reprieve from Play Billing until April 2022. The guidelines are thus both a monetization play and a provocation aimed squarely at regulators.
First-order effects
Subscription heavyweights like Netflix and Spotify lose their workaround: staying in the Play Store means routing purchases through Google's billing service and surrendering the 30% share they currently avoid.
Google gets a direct revenue uplift on categories where it previously collected nothing, while every Play-distributed developer must re-plan checkout flows and accounting around a single mandated payment provider.
Apple faces the same pressure by analogy, since its App Store already enforces an equivalent billing rule; rival app stores and side-loading arguments gain fresh ammunition against both gatekeepers.
Third-order effects
If national laws keep overriding store-level billing mandates, platform take rates shift from a private pricing decision to a regulated one, fragmenting by jurisdiction rather than by store policy.
The episode marks the moment app-store economics stop being settled defaults: developers regain negotiating leverage over commission structures wherever regulators back them.
The trend: App-store payment rules are being converted from unilateral gatekeeper policy into contested, regulator-shaped terrain — with take-rate mandates increasingly overridden country by country.
New story: Google to intensify rules that require apps on Google Play to give it cut of in-app-purchases (right now some major apps don't use Google billing - that will change) https://www.bloomberg.com/...
This in-app “give a cut to mobile OS provider” nonsense would be akin to Microsoft charging third-party software developers a fee for creating Windows applications. Just bc software runs on your OS shouldn't give u a cut of their (earned) economics. $AAPL $GOOG $MSFT https://twit…
Good news for @RevenueCat, bad news for developers. Maybe. The consumer experience of in-app subscriptions is just so much better than direct payment, and conversion rates are so much better. Maybe the app stores are doing developers a favor by forcing them to do what's best. htt…
Nah but really, did everybody at the VP level of Google forgot they're fighting already four monopoly enquiries, and their Fitbit deal is pending and unlikely to be greenlit in Europe? https://twitter.com/...
Amid antitrust scrutiny and complaints from developers, Google will be pushing for in-app-purchases much more strongly — like Apple. Right now, apps like Netflix, Spotify, Tinder on Android don't give Google 30%. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Smart move. They make more money and cause more pressure to break up the 30% monopoly (which would hurt Apple far more than Google). https://twitter.com/...
@Techmeme @markgurman Did anyone expect anything different? Apple was already there. At least we can still sideload and operate outside curated environment for now...
I was wondering when this was coming. I was hoping things would trend the other...better way... sigh. At some point we're going to have to do something about the controls considering these devices connect just about our entire existence nowadays... https://twitter.com/...
This is so weird. Google could generate a load of goodwill from developers and give people a reason to actually use Android by going in the other direction. At least with Apple the App Store rules are key to the company's investment story. For Google the Play Store is a sideshow …