After pressure from software developers and politicians, Google is lowering the fee for subscriptions that are concluded via the group's app platform.

Previously, app developers had to cede 30 percent of the subscription price to Google, after a year the fee fell to 15 percent.

Now it will be 15 percent from the start, as Google announced on Thursday.

You have heard from developers that it is difficult for them to arrive in the 15 percent range, because some customers canceled their subscriptions beforehand, Google justified the move.

The change should take effect on January 1st next year.

Google went even further and announced that for some e-book providers and music streaming services, the fee could even drop to as much as ten percent.

From Apple there was initially no comment on the Google plans.

In Apple's App Store, subscriptions are currently also initially 30 percent and after one year 15 percent.

Targeting the app store system

Google is behind the Android smartphone operating system, which has a market share of over 80 percent.

Apple fills practically all of the rest of the market with its iPhones.

On Android smartphones, apps can not only be downloaded from the Google Play Store.

However, users mostly fall back on the preinstalled Google platform.

Applications can only be downloaded from the in-house app store on iPhones.

In the past few years, various app developers had complained that the fees on both platforms were too high.

Politicians and competition watchdogs in both Europe and the US are targeting the app store system.

Large streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify, for example, do not even sell their subscriptions via Apple's App Store, but via their own website in order to avoid having to sell them.

Spotify also criticizes that it is unfair that Apple, as a platform operator, actually does not have to pay a subscription fee for its music service because it would go into its own pocket anyway.

A billion dollar business

When selling apps or doing other business in the applications, Apple and Google have only been charging developers a fee of 15 percent since last year if their revenues are less than one million dollars.

When the App Store was introduced on the iPhone in 2008, Apple generally set the levy at 30 percent.

Company founder Steve Jobs said at the time that Apple only wanted to cover the costs of operating the platform.

The value corresponded to the practice in the games industry and Google also swung to it with its app platform.

With the dramatic growth in smartphone use, the app stores have now become a billion-dollar business.

The reduced subscription fee of 15 percent after the first year was introduced several years ago.

Apple emphasizes that the group as a platform operator is entitled to a commission.

The position was recently confirmed by a judge in California in proceedings relating to the app store rules.