Google is quietly giving Amazon a leg up in digital book sales
23 comments
·May 17, 2025oldpersonintx2
Anna's Archive still charges what it always has
palata
> Google said Amazon doesn’t have a special deal. The company and Amazon declined to offer specifics.
> Google and Amazon say the payment options aren’t new. Google said Amazon was among a few companies that had been able to offer non-Google payment options for their existing customers, under a test program.
"It's not a special deal. It's just that only a few companies can benefit from it."
Who are they kidding, seriously?
rs186
The time comes when we need to define what "special" means. To me, if "only a few" companies can do this, among possibly millions of companies that put their apps on the store, it seems very special.
palata
Agreed, it is obviously special treatment.
bbarnett
I wonder, will they release the names of all these special companies?
bwb
Ya at the very least they could extend it to all book sellers like Kobo, bookshop.org, etc
barbazoo
> Google said Amazon was among a few companies that had been able to offer non-Google payment options for their existing customers, under a test program.
"Test program", what a bunch of corporate shitspeak.
StopDisinfo910
I thank the US for voluntarily deciding to run the experiment on what decades of voluntary non enforcement of competition laws will do to companies. I suggest we have the results now and it could safely be stopped.
bigbadfeline
You thank Peter "Competition IsForLosers" Thiel and humbly ask him to stop "the experiment"? You know what he's gonna say, right?
iLoveOncall
It's pretty clear to me that it means they still pay the same 30% cut but just have the UX option to buy in one click.
criddell
The article also says:
> Amazon doesn’t seem to be paying Google a fee
iLoveOncall
It's a supposition based on nothing at all.
null
iLoveOncall
> With its own one-click e-book and audiobook purchases in Android apps, Amazon doesn’t seem to be paying Google a fee. That gives Amazon a rare privilege among digital booksellers: It can turn a profit from selling e-books and audiobooks in a smartphone app.
So, an article entirely built on speculation.
Speculations refuted by Google: "Google said Amazon doesn’t have a special deal.".
What's more likely is that the share of users who buy books exclusively from the mobile Kindle app is extremely low, and that therefore it's worth selling at a loss or no profit for Amazon, to retain the customer experience.
It's also likely that Amazon doesn't have a special deal with Google, but has a special deal with book publishers, which means it's able to turn a profit even with the 30% app store cut.
xp84
Why do you cling to this idea despite the evidence contrary? If they were happy giving 30% to Google and thus likely losing money on every sale, why wouldn't they have been happy to do the same with Apple? Instead we saw for a decade plus that they weren't willing to, to the extent of having a bad user experience.
barbazoo
I’m surprised this was authorized to be published at all given that the WaPo is owned by Lord Bezos.
> That math is why many book apps like those from Bookshop, Kobo and Barnes & Noble’s Nook haven’t typically let you buy e-books and audiobooks from their iPhone or Android apps. Instead, you must leave the app, buy from the bookstore’s website and hop back into the app to read or listen to it.
Not accurate, at least for Kobo. They accepted Google's billing system, so buying from the Kobo app on Android hooks into your Google Wallet billing method and works without an issue.
It does mean you can't use Kobo gift cards towards purchases made on your phone, but you can always pop onto the website to do that.
I'm actually really glad that Kobo just did that, even if Google is taking a ridiculous cut. Anecdotally I'm buying way more impulse books on Kobo (i.e. a book on sale for $2.99 or less) since they got the app working with Google Wallet.