Google is lessening its Play Store fees for all subscription-based services to 15 per cent from January 1, 2022. “We have learned that customer churn creates it challenging for subscription markets to get profit from that discounted rate. So, we are simplifying things to assure they can,” Sameer Samat, Vice President, Product Management at Google, said in a blog post. “The new rates know industry economics of media content verticals and make Play Store work better for developers and the communities of artists, musicians and authors,” Samat added.

In the blogpost, Samat also said that 99 per cent of developers qualify for a service fee of 15 per cent or less. These changes were done after asking developers across several industries. “We will continue to know developers to learn their challenges and opportunities and how we can support them in developing durable businesses,” Samat said.

Google has always imposed a 30 per cent commission for apps selling digital goods on the Play Store; the firm had told in October 2021 that it would proactively force this commission from September 30, 2021. Google also declared a reduction in its commission rate to 15 per cent for the $1 million revenue developers earns using the Play billing system each year in March 2021.