Starting on Friday, all non-gaming developers globally can sign up to participate in the pilot and offer this choice to their mobile and tablet users in these markets, the company said.
“Android has always been a uniquely open operating system, and we continue to evolve our platform and increase the choices available to developers and users, while maintaining our ability to invest in the ecosystem,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson went on to add that with this next phase of Google Play‘s user choice billing pilot, all non-gaming developers can offer an additional billing choice alongside Play’s billing system for their users in the selected regions. “We will be sharing more in the coming months as we continue to build and iterate with our pilot partners,” the ccompany said.
Google Play said it is the first and only major app store to pilot user choice billing.
“No other major app store, whether on mobile, desktop, or game consoles, has taken similar steps toward providing more payment choice and opportunities for developers, users and the entire internet ecosystem,” the company said.
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Further, it said that over the last two years, it has moved away from a one-size-fits-all pricing strategy and that today today 99% of developers qualify for a service fee of 15% or less.
“We are constantly listening to external feedback and considering changes to our business that enable the Android ecosystem to compete and thrive,” the company said.
It added that this process will take time and would require close collaboration with the developer community, but it said it was looking forward to explore this further and begin making this available to all developers globally for their users in these initial markets.
Earlier this year Google announced a new pilot to explore user choice billing in apps on Google Play, allowing participating developers to offer users an alternative billing system alongside Google Play’s billing system.
Users will continue to have the choice to use Play’s billing system. And it said a “reasonable service fees” will continue to apply in order to support its investments in Android and Play.
This move came as a reaction to the crackdown by South Korea, which barred “the act of forcing a specific payment method to a provider of mobile content.”
In India too, Google finds itself embroiled in Competition Commission of India (CCI) investigation that is looking at whether Google’s payment billing system for Play Store developers is “unfair and discriminatory”.
