Google Korea agrees to lower in-app commission rate

Google Korea will cut its planned commission rate from 30 percent to 15 percent for app developers whose annual sales generated from its Play store are less than $1 million, amid complaints from software makers over steep fees.

The new policy will take effect in July.

The tech giant faced steep opposition from tech firms and politicians after announcing the planned 30 percent commission in South Korea while imposing the use of its own payment system for app purchases on its platform.

Last year, lawmakers proposed bills banning app market operators from implementing certain payment methods in mobile content transactions.

Google, which said that the service fee is crucial to reinvest in its platform, vowed to do its best to help South Korean developers to provide products and services to over a billion users from some 300 countries.

App sales from apps on Google's Play were estimated at over 5 trillion won last year based on a government report.