From July 1st, Google announced that it will charge a 15% fee for sales of about 1.1 billion won to all developers, but the industry reaction is cold. The reason is that the app market has kept the policy that only the company’s payment method is forced to key, and packaged it as if discounting fees.
This controversy is expected to continue until the law to prevent compulsory in-app payments initiated by the National Assembly is passed.
Late on the afternoon of the 15th, Google announced its policy to apply a 15% fee for sales of about 1.1 billion won to all developers, and a 30% fee for excess sales.
For example, if the developer has annual sales of 2 billion won, a 15% fee is charged only for 1.1 billion won. You must pay 30% of the excess sales of 900 million won.
Google said, “Going beyond the decision to apply half-price fees, we plan to focus more on supporting small and medium-sized developers for the development of the domestic app ecosystem.”
Google announced a policy to expand the 30% commission of sales received only from previous game apps last year to all apps from the beginning of this year, and to apply only its own payment methods. As the opposition of domestic Internet companies intensified and legislation to prevent this from appearing one after another in the National Assembly, the application of the policy was delayed until September only in Korea.
In the name of the Google Anti-Gapjail Prevention Act, seven amendments to the telecommunications business law were proposed, and as demands to pass them quickly, Google reissued the 15% fee policy.
Half price of name, solid payment method monopoly
Internet industry reaction is cold. On the Google side, this was called a’half-price fee policy’ and expressed it as if it would be a great benefit to the developer, but companies that are actually paying huge fees to Google are expected to suffer damage.
According to a report published by the Korea Mobile Industry Association (MOIBA),’Company Status and Response Measures Survey Results for Changes in Google Fee Policy’, currently large platforms are paying more than 95% of app market fees.
Even if Google implements the half-price fee policy, 30% of the fee is required for the amount exceeding 1.1 billion won, which means that only 160 million won for each company will be reduced.
In other words, even if it is packaged at half price, the burden on platforms that service content according to the 30% commission policy of its own payment method has increased as Google forced in-app payment.
If there is no difference in the fee policy for large platforms, it does not change that the mobile content industry takes 30% of added value. Accordingly, an increase in the cost of using digital content for consumers is expected to be inevitable.
An industry official criticized, “It can be said that there is little effect on the large platform that actually pays most of Google Play fees,” he said. “Rather, it is trying to avoid the problem of payment method enforcement and blurring the essence.”
Another industry official predicted, “Isn’t this a measure to reduce the power of passing the bill under discussion?”
Where to discuss the National Assembly In-App Payment Law
Again, attention is focused on the National Assembly. This is because the legislative discussions of the National Assembly have been postponed whenever Google announced a policy to postpone or reduce its fee policy.
The Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communication Commission, which deals with the proposed legislation, has not been able to properly proceed even the subcommittee on legislation, which is the first step in legislation.
In the meantime, Rep. Won-wook Lee, who is in charge of the chairman of the Cabinet Office, is paying attention by revealing that he will respect Google’s change in attitude, but will continue to discuss legislation.
Minister Lee Won-wook said in a statement, “The National Assembly hopes that this step toward creating a fair market for Google will not be a single step,” and “I hope that it will be reborn as a company that does not forget the value of fairness.”
“As a business operator that occupies a third of the domestic app market market, Google has a duty to lead the creation of the fair market.” ”He added.
Chairman Lee also emphasized that “The National Assembly respects this step and will make legislative efforts to ensure continued fairness of the App Market, such as policies to respond to in-app payments, together with members of the National Defense Agency to make this step more meaningful.” did.
It is explained that the discussion of the proposed legislation will continue.
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However, it is worth noting whether the revision of the law will be completed before the time when it is decided to apply only the company’s payment method due to the issue of retrospective application of the bill.
An official from the National Assembly said, “There is no reason to stop legislation in Korea, although discussions on the app market unfair law continue in Google’s domestic market as well. “He said.