[HN Gopher] Amazon Appstore will reduce its developer revenue cut
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Amazon Appstore will reduce its developer revenue cut
        
       Author : WaitWaitWha
       Score  : 201 points
       Date   : 2021-06-17 16:44 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.aftvnews.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.aftvnews.com)
        
       | aeturnum wrote:
       | This has real "company scrip" vibes that I am not crazy about.
       | I'm sure it will be good in the short term for companies that are
       | already using a lot of AWS services and have a lot of sales on
       | the Amazon app store[1], but long term doubling down on Amazon's
       | offerings seems risky.
       | 
       | I wonder if the solution, instead of breaking up amazon et. al.,
       | is to subsidize small companies' spend in the space in a way that
       | effectively equalizes subsidies. These pricing strategies matter
       | the most when you are small and dealing with a lot of cashflow
       | problems and there's a real risk that you choose the provider you
       | can afford and then get stuck.
       | 
       | [1] does anyone have a lot of sales on the amazon app store....?
        
         | Noumenon72 wrote:
         | Think you mean "scrip", not "script".
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip
        
           | ahmedalsudani wrote:
           | New word of the day! This one is going to come in handy.
        
           | aeturnum wrote:
           | I absolutely do! Thank you.
        
         | Spivak wrote:
         | Eh I mean that's what Amazon is hoping but it only happens if
         | you start depending on the AWSBucks.
         | 
         | * Pay 30% to Apple or Google on their stores.
         | 
         | * Pay 20% to Amazon on their store and get 10% in AWS credits.
         | 
         | If you just treat it like the credits are worthless then it
         | might still be a good deal. But probably not since Amazon is
         | cutting fees and offering incentives because their store has so
         | few customers. The Microsoft store had similar programs a while
         | back and it didn't really go anywhere.
         | 
         | People always focus on the Apple "tax" but forget that the App
         | Store and the Play Store's value are as sales channels and they
         | can get away with charging that much because in aggregate
         | publishers will make more money paying it than not being in the
         | store. Amazon doesn't have that value prop currently.
        
           | servercobra wrote:
           | Except for developers starting out, it's 15% to Apple or
           | Google if you're making under 1 million.
           | 
           | I'm very confused why Amazon changed their cut and are still
           | above the big players (unless you value AWS credits 1:1 with
           | dollars).
        
         | karmicthreat wrote:
         | Amazon would pay their employees in store credit if they
         | thought they could get away with it.
        
         | monkeybutton wrote:
         | Similar to company scrip, this reminds me of "Charles Robin and
         | Company" from the Gaspe region of Canada. The company was an
         | exporter of fish that abused its monopoly position in the
         | market. Fishermen were independent businesses but Robin's
         | company was both buying the fishermens' catch (thus setting its
         | price) and also the mortgage lender for the fishing boats (so
         | they controlled their debt too).
        
         | markus_zhang wrote:
         | Might incentize some new spendings on AWS service.
        
           | aeturnum wrote:
           | Given that Amazon already makes a lot of money on AWS and
           | that they have lots of cash on hand, I am very skeptical that
           | they need more financial incentives to be able to develop new
           | services.
           | 
           | Like, this could happen, but it feels like the marginal
           | utility of the "aws buks" are near zero for Amazon itself.
        
         | _jal wrote:
         | If the Amazon Bux are transferrable, it is less of a problem.
         | 
         | If they aren't, well, yeah, they're crack coupons.
        
           | entangledqubit wrote:
           | Isn't any compute more-or-less transferable (presumably at
           | less than AWS's dollar cost) if you take it and mine some
           | currency with it? I assume there's something out there that
           | effectively buy spares cycles if you install a client. Or
           | resell S3 space. (And yes, this may be potentially dangerous
           | to your AWS account reputation.)
        
             | tshaddox wrote:
             | Sure, but it's almost certainly going to be exchangeable
             | for a very small portion of its face value.
        
             | Verdex wrote:
             | This is actually something that I'm hoping that eventually
             | homomorphic encryption would enable. Right now it's kind of
             | a bad idea to buy leased out computation time from
             | arbitrary sources. "Hey, I have all these AWS credits and I
             | want to recoup the value of them, so I'll give you a 10%
             | discount on compute time. Uh oh, it turns out I'm also a
             | competitor for your protein folding endeavor, so I'll be
             | analyzing your inputs to steal your secrets and then
             | returning faulting outputs." I suppose you could just
             | demand admin access to their AWS account and lock them out
             | for the duration of your lease, but that's just as bad idea
             | for them as the opposite is for you.
             | 
             | If we had efficient homomorphic encryption, then we could
             | just sell so many operations. Then someone looking to lease
             | second hand computation could just put a counter in the
             | output to make sure they're actually running the full
             | amount and bingo cryptographically certain results.
        
         | slg wrote:
         | It is weird how we allow monopolistic behavior if the company
         | is part of an oligopoly rather than a pure monopoly. If we
         | agree this is an abusive business practice, the specific market
         | share of Amazon's app store shouldn't matter.
        
           | hobofan wrote:
           | I'm wondering whether Google in their Play Store revenue cut
           | reduction considered doing the same thing but decided against
           | it due to the antitrust risk.
        
       | Apocryphon wrote:
       | Great reminder that Android manages to have a third party app
       | store or two run by giant companies (there's a Samsung one as
       | well I believe) and it doesn't water down the Google Play Store
       | or lead to important exclusive apps being restricted to those
       | stores. A lessons for those who believe Apple opening up their
       | apps would pose a threat to the App Store.
        
       | DoctorOW wrote:
       | It's amazing to me that all the comments here are about Apple
       | when the much larger Google Play store also has a Google cloud
       | offering that competes with AWS. If Google implemented something
       | similar to this they could score big customers who have an app on
       | both Apple/Google stores.
        
         | CobrastanJorji wrote:
         | If I had to guess why that doesn't exist, I'd guess that Google
         | is scared of anything that smells like abusing monopoly power
         | given all of the government interest in them over the last
         | couple of years. Of course, big corporations are weird. I could
         | just be overthinking it and it's just that the cloud folks and
         | the play store folks don't talk to each other.
        
       | otrahuevada wrote:
       | Why is charging a flat fee never an option? Just take $200 and
       | let me do my thing. Taking any % of my income on the regular as a
       | kind of existence tax is detrimental for the ecosystem.
        
         | DoctorOW wrote:
         | I've never developed for Amazon, but on Apple it's both.
         | $99/year + 30%
        
         | CodesInChaos wrote:
         | 1. Some of their costs scale with the number of purchases or
         | revenue made through the shop (traffic, support, payment
         | processing fees)
         | 
         | 2. Fixed costs, like development effort, need to be distributed
         | across their customers. Fixed fees will be negligible for big
         | customers and unaffordable for small customers.
         | 
         | 3. They're gatekeepers for these devices. If you want your app
         | on a device they can control you need to pay their fees. So as
         | long as the fees are not big enough to deter a developer from
         | publishing their app for that device, they can charge whatever
         | they want.
         | 
         | I think revenue sharing is the best pricing model for an app
         | store, but without abusing the gatekeeper status the fees would
         | likely be significantly lower.
        
           | ramesh1994 wrote:
           | While I do agree with what you've said, I think they should
           | be able to price these into a bill that they can send the app
           | developers monthly. They have shown competency in running the
           | pricing on AWS to such great margins and few people seem to
           | complain about pricing.
           | 
           | Perhaps it is a combination of the sentiment that they are
           | owed a percentage of your income and it being such a large
           | number (20-30%) frustrates the developers.
        
         | Yeroc wrote:
         | There are incremental costs involved in bandwidth, if nothing
         | else, to actually distribute your application so it makes sense
         | it's not a simple flat fee.
        
           | otrahuevada wrote:
           | I've actually never looked at what the bandwidth and storage
           | costs for my apps could be. But also, they could easily be
           | taken out of the equation by letting me pay for that
           | separately? Inclusion in the mandatory single point of
           | failure that is the app stores _by itself_ should not demand
           | a hefty, ongoing tax
        
         | Siira wrote:
         | You are asking the thieves to just take $200 when they can take
         | more? Good dreams.
        
       | Ancapistani wrote:
       | That's... nuts.
       | 
       | It increases developer revenue by ~15%, and adds an AWS credit
       | for another ~15% on top of that.
       | 
       | I've never really felt the urge to develop a public-facing app on
       | my own, but I'm going to have to give it some serious thought
       | now. Developing an Android app through contract labor and
       | distributing it via Amazon's App Store could potentially end up
       | bootstrapping another line of business by providing AWS
       | infrastructure.
       | 
       | Now, if Amazon comes out with a viable competitor for Oculus and
       | quickly expands into AR...
        
         | IfOnlyYouKnew wrote:
         | They are doing this because the platform is not attractive
         | enough for developers. Otherwise, they wouldn't be doing this.
         | 
         | 70% of something easily beasts 90% of almost nothing, ever day.
        
           | mypalmike wrote:
           | I think you replied to a sarcastic comment. But honestly I'm
           | not sure.
        
             | GrinningFool wrote:
             | I don't think it was sarcastic.
             | 
             | When BlackBerry was adding incentives to get developers to
             | build for their new platform, their app store got flooded
             | with minimum-qualifying-effort crap. I'd expect something
             | similar here, if people think it'll pay off.
        
               | ohyeshedid wrote:
               | You don't have to expect, Amazon's app store is filled
               | with shovelware already.
               | 
               | I'm wondering what the magic in accounting is doing with
               | this incentive structure.
        
       | stefan_ wrote:
       | Haha, wake me when they start paying developers to publish on the
       | Amazon Appstore. Remember, this is for the de-Google-ified
       | Android devices Amazon sells. They don't have Google services so
       | chances are your apps will need major refactoring, and then you
       | are stuck supporting two ecosystems all the time that are subtly
       | different and broken (Amazon tries to emulate some Google
       | services) while the Google side keeps tightening the noose around
       | your neck that are the Google services.
       | 
       | And all that, to sell on an app store for devices that are the
       | cheapest crap imaginable and attract a crowd that is about the
       | opposite of what you would want when charging money for apps.
        
       | Black101 wrote:
       | was there a lawsuit in the rear view mirror?
        
       | the_reformation wrote:
       | I wonder if this is the way Apple and Google will eventually
       | retreat from their 30%* cut, by using their app store chokepoint
       | to nudge developers to their platform. Seems like a worse
       | monopolistic practice than the 30% cut to me.
       | 
       | For Google, that'd obviously be GCP discount. For Apple, less
       | obvious. Pushing iCloud storage? Apple Music? They've already
       | forced every app to support Apple Pay and Sign In with Apple, so
       | they likely don't even need the carrot.
       | 
       | *yes I know its not 30% anymore for some/most usecases.
        
       | toomuchredbull wrote:
       | The Amazon what now? I didn't even know this was a thing. If
       | anything they probably did it to atttract developers to a non-
       | successful platform.
        
         | ineedasername wrote:
         | They sell a ton of kindle fires. Their app store doesn't have
         | the selection of iOS or Android, but it's got a significant #
         | of apps that average consumers might consider deal-breakers. In
         | particular, as a cheap iPad alternative for kids, they have
         | plenty of games.
        
       | tediousdemise wrote:
       | Your move, Apple.
        
         | shagie wrote:
         | From the article:
         | 
         | > Apple announced last year that it will reduce its App Store's
         | developer revenue cut from 30% to 15% for developers that earn
         | less than $1 million in revenue per year. This change went into
         | effect at the start of 2021. Earlier this year, Google
         | announced that it too will reduce the Play Store's cut form 30%
         | to 15%, but only for the first $1 million in annual revenu
         | earned by all developers. That change will go into effect on
         | July 1st.
         | 
         | > This change by the Amazon Appstore brings its revenue share
         | more closely in line with the new policies of Apple's App Store
         | and Google's Play Store. ...
        
       | foobarbazetc wrote:
       | Ahhh the company store.
        
       | cwkoss wrote:
       | For developers who don't want to use AWS Credit for normal
       | business operations, has anyone figured what sort of crypto
       | mining on AWS has the highest ROI?
       | 
       | Seems like you could convert AWS credit to crypto to 'cash it
       | out'. Do you get 10% of the face value of the credits or more or
       | less?
        
         | lallysingh wrote:
         | My guess is spot instances, I dunno if you can get them with
         | gpus attached.
         | 
         | EDIT: yes you can: https://bash-prompt.net/guides/aws-gpu-spot/
        
         | speedgoose wrote:
         | Joke aside, you really do not care about the environment if
         | consider crypto mining on AWS.
        
           | bobsmooth wrote:
           | I would imagine mining in a datacenter is more efficient than
           | mining on a desktop.
        
           | deathanatos wrote:
           | Perhaps not, but hasn't Amazon here basically lined up the
           | incentives to make it the most logical thing for someone to
           | do? A person in this scenario is receiving AWS credit they
           | don't want, AWS won't offer a market for, so they're
           | exchanging? arbitraging? it into some cryptocurrency. (And
           | from there, probably to cash.)
        
             | cwkoss wrote:
             | Someone should make an AWSWS webservice where you can get
             | paid to run others' instances on your account to monetize
             | credits - would probably be a lot more efficient.
             | 
             | Would be interesting to see where the market prices these
             | credits.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | dannyw wrote:
       | This is a cute offer, I like it. It's clear that app store costs
       | have been going down for small developers, which is a really nice
       | thing to see. This is only happening thanks to regulatory
       | attention.
       | 
       | It would be nice if more preferable terms can still be had for
       | medium sized companies, who are the biggest competitive to the
       | mega caps. I'm talking about maybe <$100M of revenue per year,
       | 20% would be nice.
       | 
       | <$1 million: 15% (or 10% if using same platform)
       | 
       | $1 - $100 million: 20%
       | 
       | >$100 million: 30%.
        
       | caymanjim wrote:
       | Amazon has an app store? For what, Kindle/Fire type devices?
        
         | NikolaeVarius wrote:
         | Its been around for a decade.
        
         | adamqureshi wrote:
         | Yes. I would like know too. APP store for what?
        
         | jbverschoor wrote:
         | Good thing they're cutting, because obv, it's not worth the
         | same cut as other companies that properly promote their
         | AppStore.
         | 
         | This is just a play to nudge apple to reduce prices by trying a
         | new anchor
        
           | bogwog wrote:
           | > This is just a play to nudge apple to reduce prices by
           | trying a new anchor
           | 
           | Not really, this is just them copying Apple and Google. This
           | fee reduction only applies to developers making less than $1
           | million per year in revenue, which IIRC is the same thing the
           | others are doing. (although to be fair, there probably aren't
           | a ton of devs making more than $1m per year on their store
           | lol)
           | 
           | I think this is most likely a ploy to stave off regulation.
           | In other words, they're doing the exact same thing
           | Apple/Google are doing for the exact same reasons.
        
             | jrochkind1 wrote:
             | > although to be fair, there probably aren't a ton of devs
             | making more than $1m per year on their store lol
             | 
             | Why would you assume that? I don't know if there are or
             | not.
             | 
             | If you have, oh, 5 or 10 developers working for a company,
             | it better have $1 million/year in revenue to pay them all.
             | 
             | I don't know how many entities selling apps in an app store
             | have more than 5 developers, or otherwise how many have
             | more than $1 million in revenue.
        
             | jbverschoor wrote:
             | Didn't notice the <1m. Then yes, they're following.
        
         | Forge36 wrote:
         | I have it, generally i don't use it. I think it's primary
         | purpose is their own devices but they didn't device lock their
         | own app.
        
           | salamandersauce wrote:
           | Yeah. It was also made available on BB10 when they added
           | Android compatibility near the end. I used it more when they
           | handed out free apps every day.
        
             | bogwog wrote:
             | > It was also made available on BB10 when they added
             | Android compatibility near the end.
             | 
             | BB10 launched with Android compatibility, IIRC. I know that
             | the first phone they released with it (BB Z10) had it.
        
         | simcop2387 wrote:
         | All android devices actually. You can usually side load it onto
         | any android device
        
       | cableshaft wrote:
       | The way the headline is worded made me think it was giving
       | developers less money, but it sounds like it's actually giving
       | them more money as it's reducing Amazon's cut. So yeah, seems
       | good for devs on that platform.
        
         | tolbish wrote:
         | Definitely misleading. It should say "Amazon will reduce _its_
         | dev. revenue cut... "
        
           | lamontcg wrote:
           | The title on the actual article reads exactly that way.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | fullstop wrote:
         | It's also encouraging them to use AWS instead of Google
         | Cloud/Microsoft Azure/etc.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | sheikheddy wrote:
       | ...what? This sounds like a blatant way to reduce the amount paid
       | out, like their backloaded stock offers.
       | 
       | Edit: Actually read TFA, I was mistaken, this is about reducing
       | the fee charged to app developers. On surface a good thing,
       | didn't even know Amazon had an app store.
        
         | castlecrasher2 wrote:
         | It's a terrible title for sure, I imagine most would interpret
         | it the same way you and I initially did.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | chrisseaton wrote:
       | > Amazon Appstore will reduce developer revenue cut from 30% to
       | 20% and give 10% in Free AWS Credit
       | 
       | I feel like this title is amazingly hard to read for many reasons
       | all working against us at the same time!
       | 
       | 'developer revenue cut' really means it's Amazon's part that's
       | reducing, not the developer's.
       | 
       | And they're reducing the 'cut' as in the proportion, not reducing
       | some other previous cut they made to revenue.
       | 
       | 'Amazon reduces App Store fee from 30% to 20% and also gives 10%
       | in AWS credit' is I think what they mean, and is the opposite of
       | almost every way I could find to read their title.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Submitted title was "Amazon will reduce dev. revenue cut from
         | 30% to 20% and give 10% in AWS Credit". We've replaced it with
         | a prefix of the article title. (The specific numbers don't need
         | to be in the title, and we try to avoid abbrevs.)
        
         | have_faith wrote:
         | It took me multiple passes to read even though I already
         | understood what it was trying to say.
        
         | elliekelly wrote:
         | Sorry, for some reason I'm still having a hard time
         | understanding. If a developer with less than $1 million in
         | revenue sells an app on Amazon's app store for $100 Amazon
         | would get $30 and the developer would get $70 from each sale
         | but now Amazon will get $20 and the developer will get $80
         | _plus_ $10 in AWS credit from each sale. Am I understanding
         | that correctly?
        
           | jrockway wrote:
           | That's exactly right.
        
           | conductr wrote:
           | That's how I grep. But wouldn't be shocked if the credit was
           | $8
        
           | eipipuz wrote:
           | That's what I understand as well.
        
           | idorosen wrote:
           | The first paragraph of the article is much clearer, and seems
           | to agree with your interpretation:
           | 
           | "The Amazon Appstore has announced that it will be reducing
           | its cut of developer revenue from 30% to 20% for developers
           | that earn less than $1 million in revenue per year. The new
           | terms, which Amazon is calling the Amazon Appstore Small
           | Business Accelerator Program, will also provide developers
           | with AWS promotional credit in an amount equivalent to 10
           | percent of the developer's revenue if they earn less than $1
           | million in revenue per year. If a developer chooses to use
           | those AWS credits, that brings their total Amazon Appstore
           | revenue share up from 70% to an equivalent of 90%."
        
             | elliekelly wrote:
             | I think maybe I was (am?) reading too much into it because
             | when I initially read that paragraph it just left me more
             | confused! I guess I don't really understand how the
             | accounting of it works because they called it a "revenue
             | share" which made me think one sale would result in:
             | 
             | $80 in developer revenue
             | 
             | $20 in Amazon revenue
             | 
             | But it also said the AWS credits will be based off of the
             | developer's revenue and judging by the "equivalent of 90%"
             | it would seem that Amazon sees the transaction as more
             | like:
             | 
             | $100 in developer revenue
             | 
             | ($20) in developer expenses to list on the app store
             | resulting in
             | 
             | $20 in Amazon revenue
             | 
             | But I wouldn't consider that revenue sharing?
        
             | biztos wrote:
             | From the quoted paragraph I get:
             | 
             | You sell for $100. Amazon was taking $30. Now Amazon takes
             | $20 and gives you a "promotional credit" of 10% of the $80,
             | or $8.
             | 
             | So if you use _all_ of the  "promotional credit" then you
             | make $88 which is not quite the equivalent of 90% but
             | pretty close.
             | 
             | Assuming "promotional credit" means just regular credit you
             | can use for anything on AWS, I wonder how much of this
             | credit either gets left on the table (don't need AWS,
             | credit expires) or stimulates further spending for Amazon
             | (let's use AWS, it's "free").
             | 
             | It might be interesting to have that extra 8% not booked as
             | revenue, but IANAn Accountant.
        
               | handrous wrote:
               | What are the _tax_ implications of this? Is that $8
               | income?
        
               | ezekg wrote:
               | Why would a credit be taxable? Regardless, you don't pay
               | taxes on expenses anyways. IANAL.
        
               | pbreit wrote:
               | Pretty sure it's 10% of $100 and so according to Amazon
               | "This brings total program benefits up to an equivalent
               | of 90 percent of revenue."
        
         | pbreit wrote:
         | Totally!
         | 
         | In fact, developer share is increasing from 70% to 90% (with
         | 10% being paid in AWS credits).
        
           | p1necone wrote:
           | It's increasing to 80%, the 10% AWS credit is nice, but it's
           | not the same thing as an actual extra 10% of revenue.
           | 
           | Lets not forget the past:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_store
        
           | thih9 wrote:
           | That seems a dangerous way of wording this. The market value
           | of AWS credits is less than the equal amount in regular
           | currency (so: 10% in AWS credits is less than 10% of the
           | revenue). The developer share is increasing to 80% (with
           | bonus AWS credits).
           | 
           | Also:
           | 
           | > You may not sell, license, rent, or otherwise transfer
           | Promotional Credit. Promotional Credit may be applied only to
           | your own AWS account. Promotional Credit has no intrinsic
           | value, is not redeemable for cash, has no cash value, is
           | nonrefundable, and serves merely as a means to provide an
           | incentive to use our Services. Promotional Credit may not be
           | purchased for cash, and we and our affiliates do not sell
           | Promotional Credit.
           | 
           | Source: https://aws.amazon.com/awscredits/
           | 
           | And:
           | 
           | > The AWS promotional credits can be used for 12 months from
           | the date they were granted.
           | 
           | Source: https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/appstore/post/93e8
           | 9be7-16...
        
             | munk-a wrote:
             | While I definitely agree that saying it's upping the take
             | home from 70% to 90% would be misleading - in a fair number
             | of cases that 10% credit will be pretty easy to convert to
             | direct value. It is certainly more valuable than, say, 10%
             | of earnings being spendable on Amazon Basic items - they're
             | not quite trying to pull a company store trick here and the
             | fact that 80% of revenue is take-home sales already puts a
             | decent chunk above Apple.
        
               | runarberg wrote:
               | As a general labor rule, when a company gives me credit,
               | I value that at $0. Even if this is technically wrong (it
               | is definitely valued more) the reason for this is that
               | the limitation imposed to how I use the value of my labor
               | is a disingenuous negotiation tactic and I will not under
               | any circumstances let my self by fooled by it. Therefore
               | I treat the 10% credit as nothing more valuable then a
               | smile or a letter of good will.
        
               | servercobra wrote:
               | Apple gives 85% for devs under a million/year in sales.
               | Google as well.
        
               | [deleted]
        
         | saurik wrote:
         | FWIW, I had understood it first try, but I do agree that it is
         | a bit strange as the normal way of phrasing this would be
         | "Amazon reducing their cut of developer revenue from...".
        
           | chrisseaton wrote:
           | How did you disambiguate 'developer revenue cut' to be
           | Amazon's cut not the developer's? Since it says 'developer'
           | not 'Amazon'.
           | 
           | And weirder than that it's not Amazon's cut of the
           | developer's 'revenue' either - since the developer was never
           | getting it in the first place - it's their cut of the sale
           | price, or the combined revenue, not the developer's revenue.
        
             | saurik wrote:
             | 1) We normally don't talk about the developer /
             | manufacturer getting a cut: we talk about the middleman /
             | sales channel "taking their cut", so inherently the word
             | "cut" is biased to make it at least sort of understandable.
             | 
             | 2) And no: developer "revenue" is the full cost of the
             | receipt, and then a cost of their doing business is the cut
             | taken by the platform, which decreases their resulting
             | "income". The word "revenue" specifically is a number from
             | which you deduct costs to obtain "income".
        
               | chrisseaton wrote:
               | I think revenue is money you get your hands on, and then
               | pay costs out of. If you never get your hands on it then
               | it's not your revenue, it's someone else's revenue that
               | they're paying _their_ costs - your developer fee - out
               | of. Like a singer 's revenue is not all record sales as
               | they're not selling the records they've just licensed
               | someone else to do so and they're getting a cut (wait...
               | so that's cut the other way around...)
        
               | saurik wrote:
               | So, the definition "money you get your hands on"
               | definitely isn't correct, and the way to make this
               | clearer is to think of it in terms of credit card
               | processing and merchant accounts: if you sell a $5
               | product and the credit card processor takes $0.25, your
               | revenue is $5, not $4.75, and they actually will report
               | the full $5 to the government as part of a 1099-K and
               | then your job is to report that full gross income and
               | deduct the fees you paid. They also will report any sales
               | you made which were refunded, and you would then
               | separately report deductions for that also.
               | 
               | Now, that said, one can actually use that construction to
               | argue that the store is then having revenue, and giving a
               | royalty to the developer or something, and in fact my
               | store did something where I sometimes modeled it as a
               | retail storefront of licenses I purchased wholesale, but
               | these are just not normal models for how the word "cut"
               | is then applied: most people reasonably--and I think
               | correctly--believe that the user bought something from
               | the developer, with the store acting merely as a
               | middleman payment processor charging a "fee" or taking a
               | "commission" off of every sale (and I am pretty sure at
               | least Google even models it directly in that way in its
               | reports; there are a ton of advantages to the store to
               | doing that, and I think even Apple sometimes reaches for
               | this model).
               | 
               | From such standpoint, and to look at this using
               | descriptive linguistics, you simply don't ever see anyone
               | say "Apple recently increased the cut of smaller
               | developer's from 70% to 85%": every single headline I've
               | seen says "Apple recently decreased their cut from
               | smaller developers from 30% to 15%".
        
             | gouggoug wrote:
             | > How did you disambiguate 'developer revenue cut' to be
             | Amazon's cut not the developer's? Since it says 'developer'
             | not 'Amazon'.
             | 
             | To me it's because in my mind "Amazon" is the person taking
             | a "cut".
             | 
             | We never say "developers take 70% cut of the app store
             | revenue", because developers don't "take a cut", they sell,
             | and amazon takes a cut of their sale.
             | 
             | Still, I agree, the title is ambiguous.
        
             | cortesoft wrote:
             | It made sense to me the first time I read it because I know
             | most app stores appear to have settled around 30% as their
             | cut, so I just assumed the 30% referred to the amount
             | Amazon was taking. The rest just followed logically.
        
             | mistersquid wrote:
             | > How did you disambiguate 'developer revenue cut' to be
             | Amazon's cut not the developer's? Since it says 'developer'
             | not 'Amazon'.
             | 
             | Amazon to reduce its cut of dev revenue from 30% to 20%
             | with 10% in AWS Credit
             | 
             | or
             | 
             | Amazon to reduce its cut of dev revenue from 30% to 20%
             | plus 10% in AWS Credit
        
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