At the level of customer service they provide (ie ~none), Google Play would be "sustainable" at a 1% cut. Everything above that is pure profit. Which is exactly why they're doing everything they can to lock people into Google Play and lock people out of distributing/accessing apps outside of it. This isn't some kind service Google is providing at cost out of the goodness of their hearts, it's their attempt to corner the market and extract a massive amount of economic value without doing any meaningful work.

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6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

[deleted]

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charcircuit 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The revenue funds more than just support, it funds the development of an entire OS and various SDKs to support the apps that it distributes from the store.

	▲	cwillu 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Nothing added to android in the last 10-15 years has been of any benefit to me, mostly just pointless interface churn, the addition of nag screens, and removal/deprecation/awkwardification of features I actually use. Given that, I think the world would be improved by reduction of such “development”.
	▲	famouswaffles 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		The 100s of billions they get from being installed in so many devices and advertising doesn't fund that? Could have fooled me. The result is the same. Play Store doesn't do anywhere enough to justify a 15% cut.
	▲	pydry 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		mostly it funds google shareholders and their wildly overcompensated workforce.