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Comment by chii

11 hours ago

people hate taxation without representation. That's why this model has to be unsustainable, but the legislation has not caught up at all.

If different words exists why insist in making "creative" use of the wrong word?

Your local monopoly of water provider charges a fee not a tax (although many collect taxes on behalf of the state that sanctions the monopoly)

Platform apps stores tend to be a monopoly (specially in iOS case) and that decreases incentive to provide a decent service/product to their customers who hate that fact - not because customer have no representation.

I never submitted an app to play store but knowing how Google handles app customers (or any customer of their services/products) its believable that app devs are shafted too. I personally wonder if there's any differentiated service level between an app that results in revenue for Google vs one that is 100% free. I'd be pissed if my 15% fee is not buying me priority over the latest adware filled flashlight app

  • "Representation" means ability to hire an alternative should the original relationship sour.

    We don't need better support. We need a way to fire Google via a robust market full of alternatives.

This isn't taxation. It's just a silly name for a fee. Fees are what make things sustainable.

  • It's taxation when it's imposed by a monopoly over users who have no choice except walking away.

    • This definition doesn't work, because my only choice when buying a burger at Dairy Queen is to pay the burger's price or walk away too, but it's not taxation.

      19 replies →

  • It’s not a fee, thats just a silly name for a tax. Taxes are what make things sustainable.

    See what I did there?

  • At the level of customer service they provide (ie ~none), Google Play would be "sustainable" at a 1% cut. Everything above that is pure profit. Which is exactly why they're doing everything they can to lock people into Google Play and lock people out of distributing/accessing apps outside of it. This isn't some kind service Google is providing at cost out of the goodness of their hearts, it's their attempt to corner the market and extract a massive amount of economic value without doing any meaningful work.