Sources: Google Play is testing an 85/15 app revenue sharing model for all subscriptions
Unlike Apple, the Play Store split would take effect immediately. — On Wednesday, Apple detailed major shake-ups coming to its powerful app store. Those include a new revenue sharing model …
Context & Ripple Effects
The day after Apple detailed its own App Store shake-up, sources say Google Play is testing an 85/15 revenue split for all subscriptions — and unlike Apple's version, it would take effect immediately rather than phasing in. That speed is the story: Google is trying to win developers on timing, not just terms.
The later record confirms the direction of travel: Google went on to mandate its own billing system for in-app purchases in new Play Store guidelines, then layered in targeted concessions — a 15% rate on the first $1M per developer per year and eventually 15% subscription fees with streaming and ebook cuts as low as 10%. This 2016 test is the earliest data point in that arc.
First-order effects
- Subscription developers on Play would keep an extra 15 points of revenue from day one, while Apple's comparable change arrives on a slower schedule — making Play the faster payout option for any subscription business weighing both stores.
Second-order effects
- Apple faces pressure to match not just the rate but the rollout speed, since a delayed equivalent cedes subscription-app launches to Android during the gap.
- Google can afford the giveaway because it pairs lower fees with required use of its own billing — trading margin on subscriptions for control of the payment relationship, where the real leverage sits.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the flat 30% store cut dissolves into a menu of carve-outs — income thresholds, category discounts, form-factor programs like the later Play Media Experience Program — turning take rates into a negotiated, competitive variable rather than a posted price.
The trend: App store economics are shifting from a uniform 30% toll toward tiered, category-specific take rates, as Google and Apple compete for developers on fee structure instead of distribution alone.