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Comment on Ask HN: How is this legal that you must use Google Billing for Android apps?

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Well you are using their store-front and real estate at their shopping mall.

There are plenty of alternatives to the play store. They just don’t get the same amount of eyeballs or require slightly more technical users.

This is what Google’s and Apple’s (and Nintendo’s, and Microsoft’s, and Sony’s) cut covers. They built the platform, the system, provide straightforward billing, provide the “shopping mall” that draws eyeballs, etc.

It’s not just payment processing.

Fair fees for the exchange of value they provide is perfectly valid and fair in capitalistic societies. The percentage number is up for discussion, but “charging for value” by the platform vendors who built the thing and provide the platform itself is a valid point.

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