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Amazon will reduce Appstore fees for smaller developers later this year
It will lower its commission rates from 30 percent to 20 percent.
Amazon has followed in the footsteps of Apple and Google in cutting app store fees for smaller developers. The e-commerce giant has announced that it's lowering the commission it takes from developers who earn less than $1 million a year. Starting in the fourth quarter of this year, it'll be reducing its cut from 30 percent to 20 percent as part of its new Amazon Appstore Small Business Accelerator Program. In addition, the company is giving eligible developers AWS promotional credits in an amount equivalent to 10 percent of their revenue.
Apple introduced a new policy that lowers its commission rate from 30 percent to 20 percent back in December for smaller developers earning less than $1 million a year, as well. The tech giant made the shift after more and more companies spoke out against having to pay a 30 percent commission, with Epic Games leading the charge. It led to the Epic vs. Apple trial, in which a judge asked Tim Cook about a survey wherein 39 percent of its developers said they were dissatisfied with the company's distribution.
Meanwhile, Google also announced back in March that it's lowering its Play Store commission rate to 15 percent from 30 percent starting on July 1st. Since the new policy will apply to developers earning less than a million in revenue per year, Google said 99 percent of Android developers will benefit from the change.
As AFTVnews notes, Amazon will still be taking a bigger cut than Apple and Google. However, developers could be getting a better deal with the company if they already spend more than 10 percent of their revenue on AWS fees.
