Providing an option to sell on the play store

edited in General
Hi everyone

I have recently found myself in Germany and is in the process of establishing a business here. Part of the perks is that we'll finally be getting a Google merchant account. I know it was quite a pain point for us as South Africans in the past so I'm playing with the option of creating an option for local, South African, developers to publish through us.

Obviously there are numerous things to discuss and work out but would anyone be interested in an option like that?

Sorata

-- Edit for more info --
Just some extra info
-- Edit changed the cut since it is still to be determined once I know how much effort this entails --

Concerning moving an app from one account to another, apparently it is possible
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6230247?hl=en

Concerning taxes and cuts and so on for Germany.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/138000?hl=en

The important info is pasted below:
Assuming app price in country is £1 and VAT is 20%

Developer revenue after 70/30 split & remitting VAT: £0.58

Example: £0.83 * 0.7 = 0.58
Pre-VAT price * 70%
Buyer is assessed EU VAT: £.17

Example: £1 - (£1 * 1/1.2) = £0.17
App price - (App price * 1/(1+tax rate))
Developer receives from Google: £0.58

Google remits EU VAT: £0.17

Obviously I'm going to take a small cut just to make it worth it to do all the admin that is required. Having been in the position many of you are and being frustrated with the whole Google Merchant story, I have decided to keep it as low as what would be viable for me.

So my cut is £0.08 on that £1

So you will get £1 for every £0.50 your app makes. That does not include transfer fees though since that differs on the method you want to use. I will do some more research on the different methods and try and give you as many options as possible. Some charge more but they are quicker and so on


Something that will still be a bit of a problem and something I am rather not going to comment on is the whole double tax issue. Rather talk to a professional about that and not a random programmer in Germany ;-)

Comments

  • Hey our first game will use SDKBox for IAP's... Do you have an option for us...
  • Hi SkinnyBoy. I have to admit that I don't actually know SDKBox, but if you need to set up your IAPs with Google and thus need a Google Merchant account then we can chat
    Thanked by 1SkinnyBoy
  • Just edited my post above to include some more info for anyone that stumbles upon this post in the future
  • Hm... getting 50c on 58.3c (if you keep the percentage points, which matter) is like 14.3%. That is also assuming a flat sales tax of 20%, which is not always the same. That seems a bit bigger than a "small cut" to me...
    Thanked by 1critic
  • I understand that, but that is why this discussion is taking place out in public. I'm willing to drop to 10%, or even 5%, depending on what is expected and required from me.

    So that brings me to the question, what do you want from me? Ideally I'd take as little as possible and just transfer money every now and again. The idea is to help with as little effort from my side as possible, obviously effort being related to the cut as well. Less is better for both of us. Less effort for me, and less cut for you

    I will experiment a bit with giving access to the developer console to other accounts and see how applicable that is to this situation. Will post my findings here
    Thanked by 1critic
  • edited
    Maybe you can figure out a way of determining how much work it would be for you? I know other local devs have done similar things, so you could maybe ask them? You could also try go through some sort of experiment and see what the numbers look like? Might not be super useful, but maybe this sparks an idea :)

    I find it difficult to answer the question "what do you want from me?" cause we have made an alternative plan so we can have a merchant account. I guess if we wanted such a deal, I would like to have dev console access to the app (this seemed quite possible when I last looked), minimize the costs and keep the lead time for cash flow down. Considering our alternative plan, we have also considered offering a similar option, but this is a very low priority for us now.

    EDIT: besides the technical stuff, another bit of work you should try budget for in your calculation is admin. Legal admin, financial admin, tax admin, ...
    Thanked by 1Sorata
  • edited
    I haven't worked with the play store in yonks, but it does look like you can add secondary users and restrict their access at an application level:
    https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2528691?hl=en

    So that may well allow you to keep your side of it down to adding a user, adding an app, and giving the user access to that app. From that point on you should be able to just do transfers based on google sales reporting.

    I do think you'd want to check what the legalities are here, maybe @LexAquillia can comment if he knows. Also, to all involved, do yourselves a huge favor and be sure to have a contract in place. Hope for the best, plan for the worst :)

    Thanked by 1Sorata
  • Thanks for the response gents.

    @francoisvn An experiment would be ideal. Of course, maybe I should just, finally, release something with IAPs and see how the process work with Google paying out and so on. Doubt there will be any surprises though. I find your comment about it being a very low priority for you at the moment quite apt, this seems like a great way to procrastinate and keep yourself busy instead of just doing the hard work and coding. Regardless though, I will carry on looking into this

    This week has been quite hectic but I am hoping to experiment with developer console the weekend. So far it does look very promising.
    @mattbenic Thank you for the link. That helps to explain the options

    Admittedly my legal knowledge is seriously lacking in this area, actually in general, so any advice would help a lot. I realise that as much as I don't like it, contracts will be needed. That is most probably the part I dread the most actually.

    I think I should just edit the top post again and state that the cut hasn't been determined yet
  • @mm_snipa That is good news. So what do you want from your side? Anything we haven't thought of above? Or are you happy with how discussions have gone so far?

    Also, is there a lawyer anyone can recommend that side? I don't want to try explain to a German lawyer what is required... That just feels as if it is going to be painful
  • edited
    @Sorata I can't imagine there is a lawyer in the country more qualified to work on something like this than @LexAquillia :)

    Edit
    Dammit, seems I've been spelling that username incorrectly all this time >.> Corrected, thanks @EvanGreenwood
    Thanked by 2EvanGreenwood Sorata
  • edited
    Seconding that @LexAquillia is the exact person you are looking for when it comes to a lawyer for game development related legal stuff in South Africa. (His user name is spelt the way I have spelt it, his name in real life is Nick Hall)
    Thanked by 1Sorata
  • Thanks you too. That would be ideal

    @LexAquillia Any comments would be greatly appreciated
  • Sent you a DM :)
    Thanked by 2critic Sorata
  • Hi everyone

    Just a quick update. I am busy chatting to @LexAquillia about the contract. Obviously this costs money so please if you are interested in making use of a service like this let me know. You can either post here or just send me a DM. Don't really want to put out the money and then no one is interested...
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