这一禁令将大大鼓励安卓商店平台之间的竞争，从而为应用开发者提供更大的市场份额，并降低其软件的上架费用。①Google's profitable cow business is undergoing a crucial transformation, as a federal judge in the USA ruled that Google cannot restrict its competitors from competing with Google Play Store on Android; ②According to the ruling, in the next three years, Google will not be allowed to offer commissions or share revenue in exchange for other companies not developing app stores, or making exclusive app distribution agreements with Google; ③Analysts pointed out that this will greatly boost the rise of the Android app store.
Financial联社 reported on October 8th (Editor Maran): A federal judge in the USA made a decision on Monday, requiring Google to dismantle the digital barriers protecting the Google Android app store from competition over the next three years starting in November to punish its illegal monopoly behavior.
The injunction requires Google to make changes, with key measures including: Google must not pay fees or share revenue to other companies in exchange for them not developing their own app stores, or in exchange for exclusive or early release of apps in Google store, or in exchange for companies pre-installing Google's app store on new devices.
This injunction will greatly encourage competition among Android app store platforms, providing developers with a larger market share and reducing the cost of listing their software.
Google and Apple's app stores have typically taken a 15-30% cut from the sales of high-revenue apps. According to Sensor Tower data, last year consumers' total spending on applications reached 124 billion dollars.
On Monday, affected by this news, Google's parent company Alphabet's stock price dropped by 2.47% to $164.39.
Eating away at Google's market
Emarketer analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf said this injunction will prompt some of the largest app developers to eat away at Google's app store market share, causing Google to lose its previous share from app subscriptions and in-app purchases. Although it will still be the most influential app store, consumers will tend to purchase apps on cheaper platforms.
This ruling is also the follow-up to the antitrust case brought by game company Epic Games against Google. At the end of last year, Epic sued Google for locking down the app store market through deals with phone manufacturers, and for preventing users from installing software from the web through security warnings. Epic ultimately won the lawsuit.
According to the judge's order, Google must allow access to Google's app directory by competitors' Android app stores, and must integrate third-party Android app stores in the Google store.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney pointed out on Monday that the injunction means all application developers, store manufacturers, operators, etc. have three years to build a vibrant and competitive Android ecosystem, a process that Google cannot stop.
In addition, according to court documents, Epic and Google will also form a three-person committee to review technical issues related to Google compliance.
Google, on the other hand, stated that it will request the court to temporarily suspend the implementation of this injunction and will need 12-16 months to design the necessary protective measures to reduce the risk of malicious software entering competitors' stores and infecting phones. Google also stated that it will continue to appeal.
