We did not think having an app and a website was the same as buying a piece of content somewhere els

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Posted Nov 15, 2023 at 7:32 PM UTC

“We did not think having an app and a website was the same as buying a piece of content somewhere else and bringing it to the service.”

Google Play biz dev and developer partner Kirsten Rasanen, explaining how Google built some of its language around mandated Google Play Billing for in-app purchases and what did count as an exception. (Physical goods, for example.)

She claims fairness was another reason: it was a firm rule because Google didn’t want to disadvantage smaller developers.

There was also a suggestion that security was a reason, that Google wanted to be responsible since it was effectively selling the apps, but I don’t follow how that logic applies to mandating GPB. Maybe I missed it.

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