By Kim Bo-eun
Developments are ongoing at the National Assembly to pass a bill that will ban Google from requiring media content app developers on Play Store to pay a 30 percent fee for using its payment system. The bill intends to protect local app developers from being forced to pay hefty fees to by the monopolizing app market operator.
Google has exempted the fee and also enabled local app developers to use their own payment systems here so far. But its 30-percent fee for payments made with its own system is a global initiative that has been introduced in many countries.
In Korea, Google decided to push back the introduction of the fee to April next year, due to opposition from app developers and lawmakers.
It is unclear whether the bill banning Google's move will be able to be passed. If it fails to go into effect, Google will be able to collect 30 percent fee from app developers for using its payment system.
In this case, the local app market One Store is expected to benefit, given its fee rate is 20 percent. App developers may choose to migrate to One Store, and this would result in One Store obtaining greater market share.
Google currently dominates the local app store market, with a 73 percent share. One Store follows with a 15.4 percent share and Apple 11.6 percent.
If the proposed bill is introduced, and Google is banned from collecting the 30 percent fee from purchases made with its system via Play Store, it will likely collect a separate fee from app developers for using their own payment systems.
Given Google's motive behind the 30 percent fee is to increase revenue, expectations are that the tech giant will impose a substantial fee for app developers using their own payment system as well.
One Store, meanwhile, collects a 5 percent fee from app developers for using their own payment systems. Either way, whether the Google-regulating bill goes into effect or not, One Store appears to be positioned to benefit. SK Telecom is One Store's largest shareholder.
One Store is known to have lobbied lawmakers to include in the Google-regulating bill a clause that would require app developers to register their apps with all app stores.
The clause, however, has not been included in the latest version of the bill. Instead of making this binding, it appears likely that authorities will advise app developers to register their apps with all app stores.
An industry official said, "The clause requiring app developers to register their apps on all markets should have been included in the bill. If only a partial regulation is introduced, Google will find a way to circumvent the regulation."
Besides Google's Play store and Apple's App store, One Store is the only app store that exists globally. One Store attracted 16.8 billion won in investments from Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom's investment firm in May.
The local app market has seen transactions grow for 11 consecutive quarters. It is preparing for an initial public offering by early next year.
 |
| One Store's logo / Courtesy of One Store |
Developments are ongoing at the National Assembly to pass a bill that will ban Google from requiring media content app developers on Play Store to pay a 30 percent fee for using its payment system. The bill intends to protect local app developers from being forced to pay hefty fees to by the monopolizing app market operator.
Google has exempted the fee and also enabled local app developers to use their own payment systems here so far. But its 30-percent fee for payments made with its own system is a global initiative that has been introduced in many countries.
In Korea, Google decided to push back the introduction of the fee to April next year, due to opposition from app developers and lawmakers.
It is unclear whether the bill banning Google's move will be able to be passed. If it fails to go into effect, Google will be able to collect 30 percent fee from app developers for using its payment system.
In this case, the local app market One Store is expected to benefit, given its fee rate is 20 percent. App developers may choose to migrate to One Store, and this would result in One Store obtaining greater market share.
 |
| Google Play Store logo / Korea Times file |
If the proposed bill is introduced, and Google is banned from collecting the 30 percent fee from purchases made with its system via Play Store, it will likely collect a separate fee from app developers for using their own payment systems.
Given Google's motive behind the 30 percent fee is to increase revenue, expectations are that the tech giant will impose a substantial fee for app developers using their own payment system as well.
One Store, meanwhile, collects a 5 percent fee from app developers for using their own payment systems. Either way, whether the Google-regulating bill goes into effect or not, One Store appears to be positioned to benefit. SK Telecom is One Store's largest shareholder.
One Store is known to have lobbied lawmakers to include in the Google-regulating bill a clause that would require app developers to register their apps with all app stores.
The clause, however, has not been included in the latest version of the bill. Instead of making this binding, it appears likely that authorities will advise app developers to register their apps with all app stores.
An industry official said, "The clause requiring app developers to register their apps on all markets should have been included in the bill. If only a partial regulation is introduced, Google will find a way to circumvent the regulation."
Besides Google's Play store and Apple's App store, One Store is the only app store that exists globally. One Store attracted 16.8 billion won in investments from Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom's investment firm in May.
The local app market has seen transactions grow for 11 consecutive quarters. It is preparing for an initial public offering by early next year.
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