"Google and Apple's Trick? Commission Reduction Accounts for Less Than 5% of Revenue"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] Google and Apple, which have been criticized for the so-called 'app toll' controversy, have finally decided to lower some of their fees, but an analysis shows that the resulting revenue loss is less than 5%.

According to the economic media CNBC on the 16th (local time), app market information company Sensor Tower applied Google's app fee reduction to Google Play's annual performance in 2020 and calculated that the fee reduction amount was $587 million. This accounts for about 5% of the total fee revenue.

In the case of the Apple App Store, which announced a similar reduction policy, the fee reduction amount was calculated at $595 million. This is also only 2.7% of the annual App Store fee revenue.

Google announced that starting July 1, it will apply a 15% fee for annual revenue up to $1 million (?1.135 billion) and a 30% fee for revenue exceeding that. For example, if a developer's annual revenue is ?2 billion, a 15% fee is applied to ?1.135 billion, and a 30% fee is applied to the excess ?865 million. After announcing this first in Korea on the 15th, Google officially confirmed through a statement by Samir Samat, Vice President (VP) of Product Operations, that the same policy will be applied globally.

Apple also lowered the fee from 30% to 15% for developers with annual revenue under $1 million starting January this year.

CNBC reported, "Sensor Tower's estimate shows that popular apps will still pay fees close to 30%," and "investigations by politicians and regulators targeting Google Play and Apple App Store are increasingly on the rise."

Tim Sweeney, CEO of game developer Epic Games, which is engaged in a legal battle with Apple over app market fees, tweeted on the same day, "It is scary to see Google and Apple coordinating adjustments in their monopoly policies," pointing out that proper competition is not taking place in the app market. He explained that if it were a competitive market, fees would have been lower.

Epic Games was expelled from the Apple App Store after building its own payment system in protest of Apple's App Store fee policy last year and is currently involved in legal disputes with Apple and Google.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.