How a lot would it not price Google to let third-party app shops just like the Epic Video games Retailer stay inside its personal Google Play Retailer, with entry to each Android app? Google says the reputational harm can’t be calculated — however that it’d take 12 to 18 months and upwards of $60 million to construct and keep the technical underpinnings.
We’re nonetheless ready to search out out what Epic truly gained in its shock victory towards Google final December, after a jury determined the Google Play app retailer and Google Play Billing are unlawful monopolies — however we all know what Epic needs. The Fortnite developer’s largest ask was arguably for Google to open up its personal Android app retailer, forcing Google to hold different competing app shops inside its partitions.
Whereas $61.3 million might sound like some huge cash on the low finish (or upwards of $137 million on the excessive finish), we noticed in court docket paperwork that Google makes billions of {dollars} in revenue from the Google Play retailer each quarter — for 2021, the corporate’s personal forecast recommended the shop would produce practically $12 billion of revenue in a single 12 months. That’s over $31 million in revenue every day.
Google additionally argues it ought to be entitled to gather a charge from third-party app shops if it had been compelled to undergo with these adjustments.
Once more, it’s not all concerning the cash. As you possibly can learn within the full doc, Google claims that Android app builders “would instantly face a bunch of regulatory and compliance dangers related to commercial and distribution of their apps all over the world” if Google had been to let any app retailer take its catalog of apps.
It additionally argues that consumer security and its popularity are at stake as a result of “ill-intentioned app shops might then intermingle the apps from Google’s catalog with malware or pirated apps from their very own catalog,” amongst different examples.
“These proposed treatments would require a dramatic redesign of the Play Retailer and Android that might hurt Android customers and builders, the belief and security of the Play retailer, and the Android ecosystem and require Google to change into a compelled vendor for its rivals,” Google writes.
Epic will now get an opportunity to query Google’s estimates, and file a rebuttal. The court docket is scheduled to have a ultimate listening to on August 14th.
