[HN Gopher] Google Play Had a Profit of $8.5 USD Billion in 2019...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Google Play Had a Profit of $8.5 USD Billion in 2019 with Margins
       of 62 Percent
        
       Author : adrian_mrd
       Score  : 34 points
       Date   : 2021-08-29 17:24 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thurrott.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thurrott.com)
        
       | ksec wrote:
       | Missing the Keyword here " _operating margin_ ".
        
       | stevespang wrote:
       | Absurd. Big corporations often struggle to earn 20% profit. I am
       | old enough to recall the Major oil co's being hit with the
       | "windfall profits tax" back in March 1980. We need the same thing
       | for tech co's today.
        
       | greatgib wrote:
       | This is very interesting, because, for years, there have been fan
       | boys that justified Apple and Google apps store rackets by saying
       | that it is normal for them to have high charges to be able to
       | fund the expensive work of providing the service.
        
       | fxtentacle wrote:
       | While I remain unconvinced that they would have behaved better,
       | had they been in Google's position, I feel very thankful to Epic
       | Games for finally forcing those numbers into the public. It's
       | almost as if they are now procuring the research that government
       | agencies should have been doing, but couldn't.
        
       | heybrendan wrote:
       | I'd have preferred that the OP simply share the Reuters [1]
       | article directly, than linking to what strikes me as a second-
       | rate, pedestrian personal site masquerading as an pseudo-official
       | tech news blog.
       | 
       | From the Reuters article [linked in TFA]:
       | 
       | > In its quarterly financial disclosures, Google groups Play app
       | revenue with that of other services and accounts for the store's
       | ad revenue as part of another broader category.
       | 
       | Wishful thinking perhaps, but now that the cat is out of the bag,
       | it would be nice to have Play revenue details in future financial
       | disclosures. Retail investors are absolutely clamoring for more
       | transparency in all SEC filings, and it shouldn't require complex
       | acts of jurisprudence to get more data into everyone's hands.
       | 
       | In fact, I'd like to see this behavior [releasing higher
       | resolution business details] apply to all of FAANGM [heck, the
       | entire market], given that when it comes to 10-{Q,K}s, they all
       | seem to be playing the same dastardly, opaque game.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-play-app-store-
       | rev...
        
       | qeternity wrote:
       | > This means that Google could very easily afford to charge
       | developers a lot less than it does and still be wildly and even
       | unfairly successful.
       | 
       | I always wonder if every first world, white collar worker who
       | thinks these things realizes that the exact same thing applies to
       | themselves.
       | 
       | For every cushy white collar job in the developed world, there
       | are hoards of people who would do this job for a fraction of what
       | is being paid. So why don't people work for less, voluntarily? It
       | sounds absurd right?
       | 
       | Capitalism is the worst form of economic association, except for
       | all the others. Show me a viable alternative, and I'll change my
       | mind.
        
         | ksec wrote:
         | >I always wonder if every first world, white collar worker who
         | thinks these things realizes that the exact same thing applies
         | to themselves.
         | 
         | Pretty much sums up Silicon Valley. Saying $200K Fresh Grad job
         | to FAANG is barely enough while claiming the company that
         | employed them are making too much profits.
        
       | Jyaif wrote:
       | Yes, software has high profit margins. What's the margin on the
       | Fortnite's cosmetics?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-08-29 23:03 UTC)