Google supplied Netflix a sweetheart deal to pay simply 10 % on Google Play

Spotify isn’t the one one which negotiated with Google for particular therapy. Netflix did, too.

In 2017, Google supplied Netflix a particular discounted price of 10 % of its in-app funds on Android — which means Netflix might preserve 90 % of the cash — in response to paperwork and testimony within the Epic v. Google trial.

As soon as upon a time, when Netflix might supply its personal methodology of cost, it paid nearer to a few %, he stated. Google ultimately minimize that off. However earlier than Google simply up and took different cost mechanisms away, it tried to supply Netflix the particular 10 % deal to modify to Google Play Billing (GPB) voluntarily— slightly than threat Netflix taking all of that income away.

Google supplied to make Netflix a “platform growth associate” underneath a program it known as “LRAP++”, in response to a Netflix inner doc proven in courtroom in the present day. (I consider I overheard that LRAP stands for Dwelling Room Accelerator Program.)

“Netflix is the one one that is being supplied to at this level,” the doc continued.

The deal: “Deliver revshare to 10% on the situation that Netflix have a full dedication to GPB globally.” Perryman confirmed underneath oath that Google really supplied that deal to Netflix in September 2017.

Netflix didn’t take the deal, he stated. Netflix not pays Google something for distribution through Google Play, pointing individuals who obtain the app to subscribe and pay in a cell browser as a substitute.

That’s partly as a result of Netflix forecast it would lose cash even at 10 %.

“Assuming all Android in-app signups got here via GPB, Netflix would lose ~$250M USD on 1 yr of signups, even when accounting for the incremental uplift,” reads a line in one other Netflix inner doc. (Netflix in contrast signing up in a browser vs. in-app Google Play funds, it provides, whereas assuming a subscriber would stick round for 36 months.)

“We don’t see a situation the place Google’s cost system would outperform, and even match our personal,” Netflix argued.

Google’s lawyer didn’t contest any of this within the video deposition we noticed. As a substitute, Google spent its time confirming that Netflix is offered on virtually each video-playing gadget underneath the solar — successfully mentioning, with out saying explicitly, that an app on the scale of Netflix can afford to bypass the shop and depend on a browser signup. Google didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Whereas Netflix didn’t take Google’s sweetheart deal, it did take one from Apple again within the day. Netflix had a “distinctive association” with Apple to share solely 15 % of its income on iOS, half of Apple’s normal price, in response to an e mail unearthed through the Epic v. Apple trial.

We don’t know the way a lot Spotify pays Google for its particular deal. Ultimately, the numbers weren’t publicly revealed throughout trial.