Were going old school back when google promised the android app store would not be a profit center

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Posted Nov 14, 2023 at 9:08 PM UTC

We’re going old-school — back when Google promised the Android app store would not be “a profit center.”

Chu says the original Android Market rev share was 70/25/5: “70 percent to developers, 25 percent to carriers, and Google kept 5 percent.”

In an FAQ he drafted for the Android Market in 2008, he wrote “Google will not be operating the Android Market as a profit center” and “Google will collect a small charge to cover costs of handling and billing.”

We learned earlier today that, in 2020, Google internally claimed that Google Play had become one of the most profitable businesses in the world and key to Android P&L — literally a profit center for Google.

In a blog post he drafted that year, he wrote: “Developers will get 70% of the revenue from each purchase; the remaining amount goes to carriers and billing settlement fees — nothing goes to Google.” But according to an email we just saw, Google decided it should take 5 percent for processing fees.

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