All their announcements read like fees will be automatically reduced to 15% for the first 1M$, and even the linked article implies that:
Starting July 1, 2021, the service fee for each developer will be 15% for the first $1M (USD) of earnings you make each year when you sell digital goods or services.
However, when you read on, you realize that it's an opt-in that you need to take action on:
To officially enroll for the 15% service fee tier, you must: [list of requirements and steps]
I resent Google's policy on insisting using their payments gateway, but this criticism is unfair: Google Play console has message about enrolment to this program on the most visible place they have, with a very noticeable red tint, so it is impossible to miss whenever you log into that console.
Most app developers rarely visit Play Console once their app is published. Either they aren't making updates, or they are a larger operation and use the API to deploy. Unfortunately many of them also don't notice Play developer emails because they get in the habit of ignoring them. In some ways Google I/O and the press are vital in getting the word out to devs about important changes.
As a full-time app developer who consequently follows all Android design, policy and direction changes, you are not going to miss that message. As a part-time / hobby project developer, I only read the news posts that made it look like it was an automatic fee reduction.
Apple requires enrollment in the small business program too, and it was much more involved in the Google one. For Google you basically just created a group and asserted which developer accounts were part of it, then approved it.
IIRC when I signed up for it, you had to link any other accounts that your company owns and agree to some additional stuff (since they need to make sure people aren't using multiple accounts to get around the $1MM limit). The notice is very visible (plus emails).
Create an account group to help us understand if there are any other developer accounts that you're associated with. We'll use this information to make sure that you're eligible for Google Play developer programs and services, such as the 15% service fee.
This looks like a fully arbitrary requirement that has nothing to do with the 15% fee and everything with Google collecting as much data as it can get away with.
Isn't this just saying "No creating 10 developer accounts to get the discount on $10M of earnings instead of $1M" ?
Small business discounts are very vulnerable to abuse - when the UK introduced a tax break on the first £X of employee salaries, giant corporations like G4S shifted their employees to work for 48,000 new "small businesses", each with a handful of employees, to claim the tax break 48,000 times.
when the UK introduced a tax break on the first £X of employee salaries, giant corporations like G4S shifted their employees to work for 48,000 new "small businesses", each with a handful of employees, to claim the tax break 48,000 times.
Can you point me to something that talks about this? I tried a quick Google search but wasn't able to find relevant results.
I was having a a discussion with a friend who was advocating for more small business tax breaks a couple weeks ago. My counterargument was that almost all Amazon delivery drivers are technically employees of small businesses, but I'd love to have this as a more concrete example of a large corporation abusing small business benefits.
not quite as the poster claims. G4S didn't "shift" employees, they hired new people to meet their new demand for covid related work. for these new people, they used employment agencies that were "Recruitment and Employment Confederation accredited and members of the government's Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Framework."
it appears the accreditation of these new employment companies by the government was lacking.
That view seems a bit too cynical. The requirement is a simple abuse-prevention step. When you work at the scale of Google, there are constant threat of abuse that you need to address.
Comments
All their announcements read like fees will be automatically reduced to 15% for the first 1M$, and even the linked article implies that:
Starting July 1, 2021, the service fee for each developer will be 15% for the first $1M (USD) of earnings you make each year when you sell digital goods or services.
However, when you read on, you realize that it's an opt-in that you need to take action on:
To officially enroll for the 15% service fee tier, you must: [list of requirements and steps]
I resent Google's policy on insisting using their payments gateway, but this criticism is unfair: Google Play console has message about enrolment to this program on the most visible place they have, with a very noticeable red tint, so it is impossible to miss whenever you log into that console.
Most app developers rarely visit Play Console once their app is published. Either they aren't making updates, or they are a larger operation and use the API to deploy. Unfortunately many of them also don't notice Play developer emails because they get in the habit of ignoring them. In some ways Google I/O and the press are vital in getting the word out to devs about important changes.
Source: Worked at Play on developer tooling.
As a full-time app developer who consequently follows all Android design, policy and direction changes, you are not going to miss that message. As a part-time / hobby project developer, I only read the news posts that made it look like it was an automatic fee reduction.
They've also sent me an email explaining that I need to enroll this program.
Apple requires enrollment in the small business program too, and it was much more involved in the Google one. For Google you basically just created a group and asserted which developer accounts were part of it, then approved it.
Just curious, what benefit does google get by making it opt in? Do they hope that developers missed the message and profiting on the difference?
IIRC when I signed up for it, you had to link any other accounts that your company owns and agree to some additional stuff (since they need to make sure people aren't using multiple accounts to get around the $1MM limit). The notice is very visible (plus emails).
From https://play.google.com/console/developers/paymentssettings :
Create an account group to help us understand if there are any other developer accounts that you're associated with. We'll use this information to make sure that you're eligible for Google Play developer programs and services, such as the 15% service fee.
This looks like a fully arbitrary requirement that has nothing to do with the 15% fee and everything with Google collecting as much data as it can get away with.
Isn't this just saying "No creating 10 developer accounts to get the discount on $10M of earnings instead of $1M" ?
Small business discounts are very vulnerable to abuse - when the UK introduced a tax break on the first £X of employee salaries, giant corporations like G4S shifted their employees to work for 48,000 new "small businesses", each with a handful of employees, to claim the tax break 48,000 times.
Can you point me to something that talks about this? I tried a quick Google search but wasn't able to find relevant results.
I was having a a discussion with a friend who was advocating for more small business tax breaks a couple weeks ago. My counterargument was that almost all Amazon delivery drivers are technically employees of small businesses, but I'd love to have this as a more concrete example of a large corporation abusing small business benefits.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57021128
not quite as the poster claims. G4S didn't "shift" employees, they hired new people to meet their new demand for covid related work. for these new people, they used employment agencies that were "Recruitment and Employment Confederation accredited and members of the government's Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Framework."
it appears the accreditation of these new employment companies by the government was lacking.
Thanks
Indeed, after working through the new bureaucracy, I've come to this realization as well. But the quoted wording isn't really helpful to realize that.
Well... Did they send an email about this change to every app developer, or not? That would be telling.
Yes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27616978
Opinions are my own.
That view seems a bit too cynical. The requirement is a simple abuse-prevention step. When you work at the scale of Google, there are constant threat of abuse that you need to address.
It looks more like a way to have a ability to ban even all your associates when the algorithm randomly decides to ban you.