Amazon Kindle Book Purchases Are the Next Google Play Billing Casualty

Following up on its earlier move to pull Audible audiobook purchases from its Play Store app, Amazon is also turning off Kindle digital book purchases on Android. Ars Technica reports: The Google Play purchasing crackdown is to blame, of course. Starting on June 1, Google will require all Play Store apps to use Google Play billing for digital purchases or face removal from the marketplace. Google Play billing technically has been in the rules for a while, but Google is ending a hands-off enforcement policy that effectively allowed companies to run their own billing systems. When you visit the Amazon app, you can still buy physical books, but digital purchases now show a "Why can't I buy on the app?" link instead of a purchase button. Amazon's link shows a popup that says, "To remain in compliance with the Google Play Store policies, you will no longer be able to buy new content from the app. You can build a reading list on the app and buy on [the] Amazon website from your browser."

Amazon Music purchases have also been shut down on the Google Play app. The move brings Amazon's Google Play app in line with the iOS app, which also doesn't allow digital purchases. On Android, Amazon is pushing users to the website, where they can still buy digital content or sign up for an unlimited subscription, which avoids the Play Store purchase lockdown. Google Play billing takes a percentage of in-app purchases (usually 30 percent, though media can be as low as 10 percent), and several big companies have responded to the rule change by removing purchases from their Android apps.

Why not use the "addon" alternative?

[franzrogar]

There's nothing in the Google App Store that forbids any app to download external addons.

You can see it in games where it download files from private servers (Square Enix, Disney, etc.)

So, why not let Amazon app to download the "buy now" addon on first opening to use their own payment?

Re:

[xalqor]

For the purpose of deciding whether an app complies with the rules, it doesn't matter if the code was there in the first download, an update, or an add-on.

Thanks for nothing, big platforms

[Turkinolith]

First amazon makes itself "THE" market for books/ebooks, now all of the major platforms are getting into a pissing match with each other over their cuts. Who suffers? The authors/creators who can't get their product out.

I don't use the Google Play Store

[rossdee]

I get Apps from the Amazon App store

Re:I don't use the Google Play Store

[johngen86]

Just uninstalled Kindle, installed Amazon App Store, and re-installed Kindle.

The Amazon App Store is terrible. I searched for "Kindle" and it wasn't even in the the first page of results. I searched for "Amazon Kindle" and it was the 6th result. Nevertheless, problem solved. I will happily continue buying books with 1-click with my Amazon Payment info.

Re: I don't use the Google Play Store

[madbrain]

I get some from the Samsung Galaxy store, as well. The Play store is not the only game in town. We need more competition, and stores with fees more in line with real costs, that treat customers like adults.

Google becoming more and more evil

[hherb]

I am old enough to remember when google was still the company that "does no evil". How I yearn for those golden days long gone by...

Re: Google becoming more and more evil

[madbrain]

I don't think it ever was. "Don't be evil" was just a sentence in the code of conduct. Hard to enforce given how subjective that concept is.

What about the Amazon App?

[bjwest]

Does this go for the Amazon store app as well? Is 30% of all my purchases made on my phone go to Goole?

Wait until Apple/Google classify browsers as apps!

[BentMetal]

How long until someone at Apple/Google thinks "hang on, all those browsers are apps too!" and try to justify a new demand for a cut from all purchases made from the web browsers?

Re:

[xalqor]

I was going to write "don't give them any ideas" as a joke but on second thought, that kind of reach would affect a lot more businesses and would probably inspire an acceleration of community efforts on alternative mobile OS projects. So maybe things would get worse, and then better.