Google is apparently planning on increasing the revenue split for developers with subscription services in the Google Play Store to 85/15 (85% to the Developer 15 % to Google) up from the previous 70/30 split according to ‘sources’. Google has apparently been trialing this new revenue split model for over a year as an enticement to get more services to have Googlecast enabled apps in the Play Store.
It’s interesting that this news has leaked on the very same day the Apple announced a similar initiative where they would drop their share of the revenue for subscriptions after the first 12 months. Google has leapfrogged Apple by offering the same terms from day one. Both Google and Apple desperately need to continue to increase their app revenue to offset their advertising and hardware businesses respectively, to ensure long-term economic stability.
One thing is for sure, with the two largest mobile app ecosystems on the web increasing the financial incentives (or decreasing the disincentive depending on your point of view) for releasing on their platform hopefully users will see more subscription service integrated into both platforms. Android TV would definitely benefit from an increase in native applications.
Ther has been no official comment from Google on this one, assuming it’s accurate and more that a limited trial/ initiative, so we will watch and see how this all unfolds.
