> 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.
> 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?
StopDisinfo910 · 5h ago
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 · 1h ago
You thank Peter "Competition IsForLosers" Thiel and humbly ask him to stop "the experiment"? You know what he's gonna say, right?
rs186 · 4h ago
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 · 3h ago
Agreed, it is obviously special treatment.
bwb · 3h ago
Ya at the very least they could extend it to all book sellers like Kobo, bookshop.org, etc
barbazoo · 4h ago
I’m surprised this was authorized to be published at all given that the WaPo is owned by Lord Bezos.
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.
> 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?