[심재석의 입장] Hooked on Google’s press release?

On the evening of the 15th, Google Korea sent a press release urgently. The title is,

“Google announces a half price cut for all developers”

The text begins as follows.

“Google announced on the 15th that it will apply a 15% fee to all Google Play developers regardless of the size of the developer. The’half-price fee’ policy, which will be in effect from July 1, contains an unprecedented decision to apply a 15% fee, which is half of the existing fee, to developers of all sizes. With this, the era of Google Play’s 30% commission has virtually come to an end.”

When I saw it so far, I couldn’t help but startled. This is because it feels like Google has made a’big decision’ to cut the Google Play in-app payment fee by 50%. Global Google Play sales in 2020 exceeded 43 trillion won, and it was surprising to hear that if a 50% cut in commissions sounds like they will give up profits of 20 trillion won or more.

However, this was a misunderstanding due to somewhat stimulating expressions such as “former developer”, “half price” and “all-out announcement”. Looking at Google’s announcement specifically, it was a bit different from the feeling of the title or first paragraph of the press release.

Google plans to charge a fee of only 15% up to 1.1 billion won ($1 million) of sales generated on Google Play starting in July. If the amount exceeds 1.1 billion won, a 30% commission will be charged as before. For example, if the app developer’s annual sales are 2 billion won, they pay 15% for 1.1 billion won and 30% for the excess sales of 900 million won. In other words, app developers with sales exceeding 1.1 billion won will save 165 million won (15% of 1.1 billion won) annually.

If you’re a start-up or indie game developer that’s just started up, it’s not a small amount of 165 million won, but if you’re a company with a certain size, it’s hard to say that Google Play’s fees have reduced significantly.

For example, Kakao Page’s webtoon web novel transaction amount exceeded 500 billion won last year. Let’s presume that the transaction amount of Google Play is about 300 billion won. The money Kakao Page has to pay to Google is about 100 billion won. It is unlikely that Kakao Page will greatly appreciate Google for giving away KRW 160 million from KRW 100 billion.

It’s not difficult to guess why Google has made a somewhat overblown announcement. Google is planning to force an in-app payment system to all companies that trade digital goods from September, but the backlash is so great that it is trying to soften it.

There are already similar success stories. Google originally planned to make in-app payments mandatory for new apps starting in January and for existing apps in September. When Google made such an announcement, related organizations such as the Korea Internet Business Association took place, and the government and the National Assembly also made a move to enact the’Google Goggle Prevention Act’ that regulates Google’s fees.

Accordingly, Google announced that the mandatory in-app payment policy will begin in September without distinguishing between new and existing apps. Since most of the large-scale transactions take place in existing apps, the delay in the in-app payment mandatory policy for new apps to September did not mean that there was a big change.

However, after Google’s schedule postponement was announced, voices criticizing the in-app payment forced diminished, and the move to enact the Google’s anti-government law, which seemed to pass the National Assembly right now, also weakened. Google’s time draw is a success.

Will a similar phenomenon happen this time?

Recently, the move to enact Google’s anti-going problem, which sank below the surface of the water, has begun to report to the National Assembly again. When the opposition party showed a somewhat lukewarm attitude toward enacting this law, it began to push it hard in the passport. From the standpoint of the ruling party, which is politically defensive due to various issues, the Google Anti-Government Act would be a good material to use politically. In particular, the framing of “on the side of a global foreign company” could be put on the opposition party, which has a lukewarm attitude toward legislation.

Earlier, opposition lawmakers belonging to the Ministry of Defense did not enter the legislative deliberation to discuss the Google’s anti-government law, and announced a request outside the market that “Google should cut the fee to 15% or less regardless of the size of the company in the near future.” .

Google’s announcement that day seems to have accepted such demands from the opposition. From the standpoint of the opposition party, it will be hard to put more pressure on Google to accept their demands. I can feel politics in Google’s actions.

Written. Byline Network
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