Users who have downloaded Spotify from the
Google Play Store will be presented with a choice to pay with either Spotify's
payment system or with Google Play Billing in some countries in the coming
months.
The pilot will allow a small number of
participating developers, starting with Spotify, to offer an additional billing
option next to Google Play's billing system in their apps.
"This pilot will help us to increase
our understanding of whether and how user choice billing works for users in
different countries and for developers of different sizes and categories,"
Google said in a blog post.
Under a new competition law in South Korea
last year, Google also said it would allow developers to introduce a second
payment system alongside its own there.
Spotify said its trial with Google was part
of a "multi-year agreement," without elaborating.
App developers such as Spotify that sell
digital goods have complained for years about having to use the official
payment systems of the Play store and Apple's App Store.
Google and Apple collect up to 30 percent
of each payment as a fee, which developers say is too high. Both have lowered
fees in many circumstances and have said that they are needed to fund a safe
and secure mobile ecosystem.
Google did not specify the fee that it
would collect in the new pilot.
The company is ramping up enforcement of
its Google Play Billing requirement, and it has said non-compliant apps could
be blocked from publishing updates starting on Friday. © Reuters