How much would it cost Google to let third-party app stores like the Epic Games Store live inside its own Google Play Store, with access to every Android app? Google says the reputational damage can’t be calculated — but that it’d take 12 to 18 months and upwards of $60 million to build and maintain the technical underpinnings.
We’re still waiting to find out what Epic actually won in its surprise victory against Google last December, after a jury decided the Google Play app store and Google Play Billing are illegal monopolies — but we know what Epic wants. The Fortnite developer’s biggest ask was arguably for Google to open up its own Android app store, forcing Google to carry other competing app stores inside its walls.
Last month, Judge James Donato ordered Google to figure out how much all that would cost, and you can read Google’s full answers in the document below.
But here’s the TL;DR:
- 12–16 months and $27.5 – $66.9 million to offer “catalog access” (letting third-party app stores access Google Play apps)
- 12 months and $1.7 – $2.4 million to offer “library porting” (letting users transfer ownership of their Android apps to a third-party app store in bulk)
- 12–16 months and $32.1 – $67.7 million to distribute third-party app stores within Google Play
- A redacted amount of money to review apps and app updates carried by third-party stores.
Read More:-The Verge