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Google and Match Group sign prenuptials before heading to trial over Play Store billing
Another Epic-style legal epoch in the works
Earlier this month, Match Group, the company behind dating services Match, Hinge, Tinder, and OKCupid, filed a court complaint against Google, joining numerous other app publishers alleging that the company abuses monopoly power by forcing them to use the Play Store's billing program — and accept divvying away up to 30% of their revenues — in order to be listed on the platform. This week marked a temporary settlement between the parties, but it may only set in place a holding pattern preceding a trial.
The mobile games market is making more money than PCs and consoles combined
And China is leading the pack
For decades the video gaming market has been dominated by either purpose-built consoles or cumbersome computers. From the early days of Atari and Commodore to the modern era of Microsoft and Ryzen, most video games were played at home. But then, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry changed the face of consumer electronics, and gaming, forever. Today, over 6 billion people own a smartphone, so it’s no surprise that mobile gaming now makes up over 52% of the market, bringing in over $90 billion in revenue in 2021.
Following Apple's lead, Google cuts Play Store fees in half for most developers
The first $1 million in revenue will get a lower 15% split
For half a year there's been a huge storm brewing over app store platforms, the money that they make, and who gets to keep how much of it. It all came to a head when Epic dared Apple and Google to kick Fortnite off of the App Store and Play Store for working around the usual in-app purchase revenue split. Long story short: Apple and Google did just that, and the legal battle is ongoing. But the fallout is affecting other parts of the industry.
If you chuck original videos onto YouTube to share just with your friends, brace for advertisements: the platform's terms of service for U.S. users have been revised so that videos produced outside of the YouTube Partner Program can be monetized by YouTube.
It's a big day for Google, and not just because the Pixel 5 is now available and the Pixel 4a 5G is up for pre-order. In fact, today's success probably has nothing to do with Pixels at all. Google parent company Alphabet just reported its third-quarter financial results, and numbers are looking good. So good, stocks are up 11% today.
Reddit angers some users after forcing them to log in to see content on its mobile site
Can Reddit still call itself “the frontpage of the internet” when it restricts access?
Reddit's mobile website is well-made and fast, but for ages, the platform has been pushing anyone who visited that site to the official app instead, complete with an obnoxious banner that shows up every time you open a Reddit link in your phone's browser. The corporation behind the network apparently still isn't happy with the conversion rates, as some Redditors report that they can't use the mobile site without logging in or downloading the app anymore.
As Xiaomi launches its latest phone in Europe, the Mi 9T Pro, strong sales in overseas markets are said to be a major factor in the Chinese company's stellar second-quarter financial results. A year-on-year increase in adjusted net profit of 71.7% to has been reported, up to RMB 1.96 billion in Q2 2019.
Huawei has just announced its revenue for the first half of 2019, the first time we've had numbers that demonstrate the impact its drama with the US government may have had on its bottom line. Depending on how you choose to look at them, the company has either successfully shrugged things off as it continues to grow, or sales have begun to stall. While the company is seeing a 23% year-over-year (and quarter-over-quarter) revenue increase, still an overall rise compared to last year, smartphone shipments are flat across Q1 and Q2.
The worldwide smartphone market hasn't just slowed, it's been in decline for the last year or so. Whatever you attribute that to — rising prices, longer-lasting devices, fewer necessary improvements — many major OEMs including Samsung and Apple have seen sales weaken. In comparison, though, Huawei continues to see explosive growth, especially in China.
I don't need to tell you that HTC is in dire financial straits, but I'm still going to tell you how dire because wow. HTC just released its year-end 2018 numbers, and things are looking bleak. HTC took in just 23.74 billion TWD ($770 million) during 2018, the lowest in all its years as a public company.
In the wake of a record $5 billion EU antitrust fine, Google parent company Alphabet was still able to post a 25% increase in revenue at the end of Q2 (against that same period last year). Financial results for the third quarter of 2018 are in and despite strong profits, Alphabet missed its targets and share prices fell somewhat.
How to go about bringing in revenue is a problem Facebook has failed to solve in the four years since it acquired WhatsApp. The world's most popular messaging app cost roughly $22 billion, but other than a brief experiment with charging an annual 99-cent subscription fee, there has been no clear plan on how to monetize the service.
Samsung has posted its financial results for the second quarter of 2018. Following two glowing quarters, Q2 2018 was relatively cool, with sales and profits falling compared to both last quarter and Q2 2017. The Korean electronics manufacturer said that "softer sales" of both the Galaxy S9 line and display panels were largely to blame.
Alphabet's second-quarter results were just released to investors, and although revenues are up 25% compared to Q2 2017, reaching $32.65 billion—comparing favorably to last quarter's results, too—it isn't all good news. Taking into account the effects of the recent $5 billion antitrust fine by the EU, net income is actually down significantly to ~$3.2 billion, a loss of 9.3% compared to Google's fine-extrapolated numbers for Q1 2017. That doesn't seem to have investors too worried, though, as the pre-fine numbers beat expectations by a large margin, driving up Alphabet's stock price in after-hours trading by 5%.
It's that time of the... quarter. 2018 Q1 financial reports are being published by most of the big tech names, and Samsung is likely pretty pleased with its performance so far this year. It isn't quite as high as the impressive 2017 Q4 results it previously posted, but it's sitting pretty with a total of KRW 60.56 trillion ($56 billion) in revenue, with KRW 15.64 trillion ($14.51 billion) in operating profit. That's a revenue increase of 20% and an operating profit increase of over 50% compared to Q1 2017, beating expectations.
South Korean electronics giant Samsung has revealed record-high sales figures for last year, with a total operating profit of $50 billion (KRW 53.65 trillion). The company released its Q4 results today, alongside numbers for the whole of 2017. In the last three months of the year, Samsung amassed $61.54 billion (KRW 65.98 trillion) in consolidated revenue, which amounted to $14.13 billion (KRW 15.15 trillion) in operating profit.
Alphabet, every AP reader's favorite umbrella corporation for their favorite company, has posted the results of their first 2017 quarter's earnings. Things are looking pretty good, too. Revenue and income are both up from the same period last year, even though Alphabet's tax rates have increased.
Historically, iOS has always topped Android in terms of app revenue. There are several reasons for this - the vast majority of Android devices are cheap phones (owners of low-end phones aren't as likely to pay a premium for apps), piracy is much easier, etc. But according to a report from App Annie, that could finally change this year.
[I/O 2013] Google Gives Developers A 'Better Distribution Experience' In Revised Play Store Console Coming 'This Summer'
Between Hangouts, the gorgeous new Maps, Play Music All Access, and everything else discussed in I/O's opening keynote this morning, several revisions
Between Hangouts, the gorgeous new Maps, Play Music All Access, and everything else discussed in I/O's opening keynote this morning, several revisions to the Play Store developer's console were announced.
AppAnnie: Play Store Downloads Reach Nearly 90% Of App Store Levels, iOS Still Bringing In 2.6x Revenue
Back in January, we learned that if you want to be a developer and avoid leaving money on the table, you need to be on both Android and iOS. One or the
Back in January, we learned that if you want to be a developer and avoid leaving money on the table, you need to be on both Android and iOS. One or the other isn't going to cut it. However, according to AppAnnie, if you have to choose just one platform, Android is still struggling to prove it's the one you should go with.