How much R&D went into creating the Google Play store? Probably 100s of millions of dollars so far over the course of about 15 years. Do you not know what R&D is or something? In the US tax code, software development is considered R&D.
And yes, I am a software developer.
Probably 100s of millions of dollars so far over the course of about 15 years.
OK but the claim is that they made ~$12billion in profit in 2021 alone so that actually wouldn't affect the margin that much if true...
That is a lot, however my point is just that margin is a pretty worthless statistic for software since it has such high upfront costs.
It's way more than hundreds of millions.
The actual store doesn't take that much development, but Android does.
Yeah, hundreds is probably a low guess but I'm also excluding Android itself. There Play Store itself has a ton of features most of its end users aren't aware of that are important to it's overall operation and development ecosystem. Off the top of my head it does things like code signing and authentication, security scans, governance and enforcement of rules, payment processing, etc.
Sure, and I have no numbers. My point is that splitting out the store is inherently bad accounting, because it's all of their development of Android that the play store funds.
And… licensing Android/Google Play services pays for that development, not the store revenue.
This is full on basket case delusional.
There is no possibility Google would even consider supporting Android without the play store. It's the entire reason it exists.
Wtf are you talking about? What I said, is that the licensing fees google charges for use of their products already covers the costs of development they put into android. They don’t use Google play store revenues to cover costs, because those costs are already covered before anyone makes a purchase from the Google Play store,
They use play store revenue to justify the existence. Play store revenue is the return on that investment.
Maintaining the platform would make absolutely zero sense without it. The play store is literally the entire point and the only reason Android exists.
Android exists because it was developed by enthusiasts. It was purchased by Google, not created by them.
Anyways, if we look at googles revenue streams, it’s clear that advertising is significantly more valuable to them than Play store, and they get much of their valuable data through the android platform. Personally, I’d argue it’s far more logical that androids continued development serves their advertising business than it is to say that android is an avenue to Google Play revenues.
It wouldn't have 5% of the market without Google, let alone anything resembling 50.
In a hypothetical world where Google was forcibly divested of the Play Store, the CEO would be fired in less than a week if he said he wanted to keep developing Android.
Play store revenue, while sizable, is less than a quarter of the revenue collected by their advertising business. As I said, much of the data requisite for that advertisement business’ revenue is collected from the 1 billion android devices with Google services installed. You’re saying, Google would give up the data of 1 billion people, which feeds its most profitable division, because of losing the ability to earn less than a quarter of what the advertising portion of their business brings in?
I guess it’s an irrelevant point anyway, we don’t live in that world, but that’s an interesting perspective, and I don’t think I share it. I think Google could stop charging entirely for all Google play services and they would still develop android because it brings them hundreds of billions of dollars a year. I don’t think they will, mind you, so it’s again, an irrelevant point, but my point is, as I said above, Google Play revenues do not support the development of android, that development is supported by costs to manufacturers in licensing Google services, before a phone ever makes it into the hands of a consumer for them to buy apps in the Google Play store.
How much R&D went into creating the Google Play store? Probably 100s of millions of dollars so far over the course of about 15 years. Do you not know what R&D is or something? In the US tax code, software development is considered R&D.
And yes, I am a software developer.
OK but the claim is that they made ~$12billion in profit in 2021 alone so that actually wouldn't affect the margin that much if true...
That is a lot, however my point is just that margin is a pretty worthless statistic for software since it has such high upfront costs.
It's way more than hundreds of millions.
The actual store doesn't take that much development, but Android does.
Yeah, hundreds is probably a low guess but I'm also excluding Android itself. There Play Store itself has a ton of features most of its end users aren't aware of that are important to it's overall operation and development ecosystem. Off the top of my head it does things like code signing and authentication, security scans, governance and enforcement of rules, payment processing, etc.
Sure, and I have no numbers. My point is that splitting out the store is inherently bad accounting, because it's all of their development of Android that the play store funds.
And… licensing Android/Google Play services pays for that development, not the store revenue.
This is full on basket case delusional.
There is no possibility Google would even consider supporting Android without the play store. It's the entire reason it exists.
Wtf are you talking about? What I said, is that the licensing fees google charges for use of their products already covers the costs of development they put into android. They don’t use Google play store revenues to cover costs, because those costs are already covered before anyone makes a purchase from the Google Play store,
They use play store revenue to justify the existence. Play store revenue is the return on that investment.
Maintaining the platform would make absolutely zero sense without it. The play store is literally the entire point and the only reason Android exists.
Android exists because it was developed by enthusiasts. It was purchased by Google, not created by them.
Anyways, if we look at googles revenue streams, it’s clear that advertising is significantly more valuable to them than Play store, and they get much of their valuable data through the android platform. Personally, I’d argue it’s far more logical that androids continued development serves their advertising business than it is to say that android is an avenue to Google Play revenues.
It wouldn't have 5% of the market without Google, let alone anything resembling 50.
In a hypothetical world where Google was forcibly divested of the Play Store, the CEO would be fired in less than a week if he said he wanted to keep developing Android.
Play store revenue, while sizable, is less than a quarter of the revenue collected by their advertising business. As I said, much of the data requisite for that advertisement business’ revenue is collected from the 1 billion android devices with Google services installed. You’re saying, Google would give up the data of 1 billion people, which feeds its most profitable division, because of losing the ability to earn less than a quarter of what the advertising portion of their business brings in?
I guess it’s an irrelevant point anyway, we don’t live in that world, but that’s an interesting perspective, and I don’t think I share it. I think Google could stop charging entirely for all Google play services and they would still develop android because it brings them hundreds of billions of dollars a year. I don’t think they will, mind you, so it’s again, an irrelevant point, but my point is, as I said above, Google Play revenues do not support the development of android, that development is supported by costs to manufacturers in licensing Google services, before a phone ever makes it into the hands of a consumer for them to buy apps in the Google Play store.