App stores are — slightly — relaxing control over payment systems - a podcast by Marketplace

Google and Apple have been slow to relinquish the hefty commissions they charge on app payments. Developers have been pushing for alternatives to the payment systems run by those tech giants, hoping they could save some money. In South Korea, Google is now required to let app makers use alternative payment systems, but the tech company will still take almost the same commission. For instance, in cases in which Google takes 30% of revenue, it will charge developers that use other systems 26%. Here in the U.S., Spotify recently reached an agreement with Google to charge subscribers through a non-Google system a smaller fee than usual, but there’s no word yet on how much smaller. So will these changes actually spur competition, as intended? Meghan McCarty Carino of “Marketplace Tech” put that question to Eric Seufert, an independent analyst with the website Mobile Dev Memo. He said such small tweaks might not be worth very much.

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