Google has reduced its fees for subscription-based in-app purchases on the PlayStore by 50%.

The new change comes at a time where the company faces increased regulatory scrutiny over its app store digital payment policies.

Key Highlights

• Google has reduced its in-app purchase commissions from 30% to 15% for subscription-based payments.
  
• This new change will kick in effective 1st January 2022.
• With the new change, developers will only have to pay 15% to Google from day one.

Why It Matters

• This change comes as an increasing number of developers and regulators call for more autonomy to utilize their own digital payments outside Google and Apple's app stores.
• This isn't the first time Google has reduced its commission fees for in-app purchases. Prior to this, app owners were only eligible to pay 15% (instead of 30%) in fees provided they managed to retain existing subscriptions for at least 12 consecutive months.
  
• Earlier yesterday, Apple made a similar announcement, allowing users to utilize their own payments instead of the default in-app purchasing system.