Google no longer wants companies like Netflix and Spotify to be able to charge third party app developers directly, thereby circumventing its own Play Store’s fees. The company feels that this is not fair to these developers and has caused a great deal of confusion as to its payment policies. As a result, Google will be closing this “loophole” and within a year larger companies will no longer be able to charge their own fees to developers.
You may have noticed that smart phone manufacturers like Samsung and LG have their own app stores in addition to Google’s Play Store. So do Netflix and Spotify. This will all need to end soon. The new changes will take effect in the Android 12 operating system due out next year.
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In a blog post Google stated, “We believe that developers should have a choice in how they distribute their apps and that stores should compete for the consumer’s and the developer’s business. Choice has always been a core tenet of Android, and it’s why consumers have always had control over which apps they use, be it their keyboard, messaging app, phone dialer, or app store.”
So what about small businesses who rely on such apps but are hurting in the Crona Virus world?
Apple recently announced that it would waive its app store fees for smaller business at least until the end of 2020. This was done in response to the global recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Google has offered a similar plan: a 12 month holiday from payments.
The company said, “We recognize that the global pandemic has resulted in many businesses having to navigate the challenges of moving their physical business to digital and engaging audiences customers in a new way, for example, moving in-person experiences and classes online. For the next 12 months, these businesses will not need to comply with our payments policy, and we will continue to reassess the situation over the next year.”
In other Google news, Google Cloud announced a collaboration with Reckitt Benckiser (RB) to drive stronger customer engagement as the consumer health, hygiene and Nutrition Company embarks on wide-scale digital transformation. Google Cloud unify the RB’s data landscape. The two companies state that the partnership will provide the foundation to enable RB to manage data and analytics, measurement and attribution.
“In our journey to create a cleaner, healthier world, this close collaboration with Google Cloud is a very important milestone for our brands. Only by utilizing data will we be able to better serve consumers and shoppers and create meaningful experiences for them,” said Fabrice Beaulieu, EVP Group Marketing Excellence & EVP Category Development Organisation Hygiene at RB.
We hear every day that data is the new fuel for enabling business growth. However, in today’s digital world, where billions of data points are created every second, finding the right solution for your business can be more complex than anticipated,” said Saqib Mehmood, SVP Digital Transformation & CIO Hygiene at RB.
