Google and Epic Games are fighting it out in the court this week, and the details coming out of the case has shed more light on how Google has operated in the market over the years.
The company has made select deals with Apple to push its search engine on iPhones for billions, and even paid Samsung to push its apps as default on Galaxy devices. The latest revelation from this case is another secret deal that Google has made with music streaming platform Spotify that has offered a no-fee subscription business, as given in the report here.
These kinds of deals are sure to infuriate other developers who have to pay as much as 30 percent commission for hosting their apps on the Play Store. The details of the secret deal has been confirmed by Don Harrison, head of global partnerships at Google, during his testimony in the case. He said that Spotify pays 0 percent commission for any subscription taken through its own systems.
But the bigger point is that the music platform is only charged 4 percent when people pay for the service using Google’s system. In comparison, most developers have to pay Google 15 percent commission. So why does Spotify get a special deal from Google? Harrison said that Google found the deal ‘justified’ because of the platform’s popularity and it made sense to keep Spotify in the good books and Play Store with this kind of deal.
But it seems Spotify isn’t the sole benefactor from Google, at least, from the details shared during the week-long trial. The company had offered Netflix a similar deal but with a 10 percent commission charged, which the video platform didn’t accept, which is why people use its website to pay for the service.
Examples like these don’t help Google’s case in these hearings where its anti-competitive nature has come to light. It is unlikely that the company will have it easy with the regulators but at least we’re getting to know how the giant has been running its business across different divisions.
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