Amazon has reduced the fee it charges developers on its Fire OS app store. The company is following in the footsteps of other tech moghuls – Apple and Google – both of which are trying to improve relations with developers by reducing the fee they charge.
The new “Amazon Appstore Small Business Accelerator Program” by Amazon has reportedly been designed to take a smaller cut from developers who create apps for the Fire OS tablets. Amazon has said that it will take 20 percent of the revenue developers generate from their apps as a fee and on top of that now offers AWS promotional credits worth 10 percent to developers.
Following Apple and Google’s lead
On the other hand, Apple and Google have reduced the fee they charge from 30 percent to 15 percent. However, it only applies to small size companies and developers who generate less than $1 million. Developers will have to apply to this program if they think they are eligible for it i.e they generated less than $1 million in revenue the previous calendar year.
“By helping small businesses get started with AWS through credits, we are making it easier for them to build and grow their app businesses,” said Palanidaran Chidambaram, Amazon’s Appstore Director, in an announcement. “AWS gives developers easy access to a broad range of technologies so they can innovate faster and build nearly anything they can imagine.”
Major tech companies continue to be under scrutiny by lawmakers for their monopolistic plans. The tech industry is relatively new and there is no proper framework in place to regulate them. While the US government and the European Union have been trying to keep the tech industry in check, there is still room for improvement. Other countries like India have also upped their game and have begun checking tech companies’ works.
