Google won’t say if companies beyond Spotify got secret special app store deals
After Google confirmed yesterday that it gave Spotify a sweetheart deal on Android app store fees, we were curious if dating company Bumble or any of the other 80 or so developers that have joined Google’s “User Choice Billing” program were similarly given an alternative arrangement or other sweeteners.
Google spokesperson Dan Jackson would not answer our question.
Jackson confirmed that “the standard service fee the developer pays is reduced by 4 percent” with User Choice Billing, and he pointed us toward Bumble’s Q4 2022 earnings call, where CFO Anu Subramanian suggests to investors that Bumble, at least, did not have a special rate at the time:
Yeah, on User Choice Billing, you know, we don’t expect that to have any impact on margins....