After facing backlash from developers, Google on Tuesday said it was slashing the commission it charges from them on its Play Store.

“Starting on July 1, 2021 we are reducing the service fee Google Play receives to 15 per cent for the first $1 million of revenue every developer earns each year. With this change, 99 per cent of developers globally that sell digital goods and services with Play will see a 50 per cent reduction in fees,” Google said in a blog post.

Google had initially announced a 30 per cent fee which saw huge criticism from Indian developers, including Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder of Paytm. A number of Indian app developers had formed an alliance to protest against Google's move. The fee is on developers that sell in-app digital goods and services on Play (example gems in a game).

“We’ve heard from our partners making $2 million, $5million and even $10 million a year that their services are still on a path to self-sustaining orbit. This is why we are making this reduced fee on the first $1 million of total revenue earned each year available to every Play developer that uses the Play billing system, regardless of size,” Google said.

The service fee for Google Play is only applicable to developers who offer in-app sale of digital goods and services. More than 97 per cent of apps globally do not sell digital goods, and therefore do not pay any service fee. For the developers in India that do sell digital goods, but have not yet integrated with Play’s billing system, they continue to have until March, 31, 2022 as announced previously.

For the thousands of developers in India that are already using Play to sell digital goods, they can start receiving the benefit of this change as soon as it goes into effect in July.

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