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0 pointsgreatgib4y ago0 comments

Each time someone use the straw man argument that they have costs to cover and that they still need to do a profit, just go back looking at facts:

<<Google Play Had a Profit of $8.5 Billion in 2019 With Margins of 62 Percent. According to court filings unsealed>>

https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/android/254978/google-play-h...

So, no, with indecent margins like that, you can't justify them using their monopoly to racket app developers with fees that are unrelated to the usage of the service.

Imagine if everyone was doing the same in real life, that would look absurd:

- your power utility provider requiring that you pay to them 10% of your business income because you use electricity somehow and they have costs and need to do profit

- the postal service requiring you to pay 15% of the bills you send by email through their online service or 10% of the bills you send by any other provider just because you benefit from receiving standard letters in your home mailbox. Just because they have costs and they need to do fat profits.

- Ikea forcing you to give them 11% on your business incomes because you use a desk and a chair that you bought there in your office. For the same reasons...

0 comments

oblio4y ago

No, no, you're wrong! The free market will solve this!

You know that high margins are someone else's opportunity? Surely someone else will build an alternative that undercuts Android.

Ah, you say there's a huge moat? Worth billions if not trillions of dollars? Huge market recognition? Agreements with huge companies? Regulations and government approvals all over the world? Years and years of development by thousands of developers?

On top of that there's an oligopoly in place by companies already convicted of such agreements for other issues (see the anti-poaching agreement from a decade back)? What? Like a cartel that probably fixes prices?

judge20204y ago

> - Ikea forcing you to give them 11% on your business incomes because you use a desk and a chair that you bought there in your office. For the same reasons...

They very well can make these stipulations and expect you to pay them. They have every right to go "uh we need 100% of your business profit if you want to buy IKEA furniture". You have every right not to do that due to the unreasonable payment terms. You'll need to ask your lawmakers to fix this if you think it's unjust and you're being forced against your will to oblige.

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