Guest Author
In recent months, Washington policymakers have described the Google and Apple app stores as “harmful to consumers and developers,” accusing the stores of inflating prices, stifling innovation and squashing competition.
That’s pure fiction.
I’m chief operating officer of a small app company started by three Argentine immigrants, and those are the last accusations I’d level at the app stores. It’s easy to think the big guys are the bad guys, but the Google and Apple app stores offer huge benefits to app-makers of all sizes, and changing the app ecosystem would likely hurt small app companies the most. So, before legislators–including my Florida congressional representative–start shaking things up, I hope they’ll take some time to understand how remarkably well the current app store system works.
To begin with, Google and Apple make every app-based business possible.
My company makes multimedia mobile apps; our most popular offering lets people create fun animations of their drawings in minutes and share their work with millions. But just like the car business relies on an ecosystem of roads, gas stations and dealerships, our app business relies on the smartphone-based ecosystem that Google and Apple built and continuously maintain and upgrade. Today, billions of people carry supercomputers in their pockets, making apps like ours possible to make, sell and use.
The app stores make it unbelievably easy for app developers to launch a business. With a few clicks and minimal expense, we got our app into both major app stores and in front of millions of customers. The stores also allow us to change our fees as our business and its needs evolve. We initially offered basic animation tools for free with the option of paying a one-time fee for premium features but recently switched to a monthly subscription model that provides the increased revenue we need to keep innovating.
Critically, the big app platforms give us the credibility we need to compete with software giants. Consumers know that Google and Apple ensure we’re a legitimate business and our apps are malware-free. They also know that the app stores ensure data and payment security. That’s a tremendous help to small businesses like ours, and it lets us focus on making great apps rather than trying to create secure data and payment systems from scratch.
Some policymakers think the app ecosystem would work better if there were numerous different app stores and platforms instead of two. But our experience trying to grow our business in China, where there are over a hundred app stores, taught us that more stores make the market far more difficult for consumers and app businesses to navigate. If we had to create multiple versions of our apps and deal with different platforms and rules in the U.S., it would crush our small business and thousands of others like it. Worse, it would make it much harder to start an app like ours because you’d need a whole team of developers instead of the two you need now: an Android developer and an Apple developer.
Some of the biggest app makers are suing Apple and Google over the commissions they charge on in-app fees. But smaller apps like ours, which are still building a brand and customer base, benefit tremendously from the free-to-download and in-app purchase-fee system. People can try our app at no cost; if they like it, they can sign up for a monthly subscription. The current ecosystem allows us to grow our business at an incredible rate–so we don’t even consider the fees we pay to the app stores because they are worth every penny. And we’re not the only ones who think this. A recent survey found that over 93% of Apple and Google small publishers think they get more value from the app stores than they invest in them.
Are Google and Apple perfect? Of course not. But they’ve created astonishing technologies and platforms that allow millions of app makers to launch innovative products to consumers worldwide. Lawmakers should focus on making the marketplace work even better for consumers and developers. Why break a system that works so well for so many?
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Adri Ofman is the chief operating officer of Visual Blasters, the maker of the animation app FlipaClip, available on Android and Apple mobile devices.
