Price hikes for digital platforms are on the horizon! New fees from Google

Google, which is working to comply with the European Union's DMA (Digital Markets Act) regulation, is introducing new fees for developers. If developers do not take measures similar to the App Store, these fees could be reflected as price hikes in subscription costs.

The European Union's DMA (Digital Markets Act) regulation made it mandatory for tech giants to allow third-party payment methods. Google states that they will comply with this regulation, but they are facing some challenges when it comes to implementation. Google is preparing to introduce new fees for developers.

In an announcement made today, Google announced two new payments that will be applied to the external offers program. Thanks to this program, Play Store developers will be able to direct users in the European Economic Area to third-party payment systems and will also be allowed to advertise these payment methods. However, this comes at a cost for developers.

For those who are unaware, Apple charges a certain commission for subscription fees from all app developers on the App Store. For this reason, you see different prices when you try to subscribe to a service via an iPhone app versus when you try to subscribe via a web page. At this stage, Google seems to have chosen to follow a path similar to Apple.

Google will collect payments under two different categories as part of the external offers program. In the category referred to as the initial acquisition fee, a 10% fee will be charged for in-app purchases and a 5% fee for subscriptions for the first two years. The ongoing services fee will be applied at 17% for in-app purchases and 7% for subscriptions.

There will be an option to enter the new payment method, but there will be no option to opt out. The pricing will affect not only games but also services, and each developer will not be required to choose the same payment methods for every application. Developers will register for this program as a business. This suggests that it could lead to price differences across different platforms.