Google didn't want to make money from the Android app store at first, but now it earns $4.4 billion in half a year.

CTOnews.com, Nov. 15 (Xinhua)-- Google's Play App Store has become an important part of the Android experience, but in the early days of Android, even Google itself didn't expect it to develop like this.

Back in 2008, when Google's Play App Store was still called Android Market, Eric Chu, then head of the Android developer ecosystem, said in an internal question and answer that "Google will not use the Android market as a profit center" but will "charge a small fee to cover the cost of processing and settlement." Google ends up taking a 5% share of revenue, while 25% goes to operators and 30% to developers.

According to The Verge, the above information was disclosed in the ongoing Epic Games and Alphabet litigation.

More than a decade later, it is clear that the situation has changed a lot, and the lawsuit also reveals the latest data. In 2020, Google App Store had an operating profit margin of 65%, with an operating profit of $4.4 billion (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 31.988 billion yuan) in the first half of 2020 alone. This figure is 33% higher than in the first half of 2019, indicating rapid growth.

Google initially had no intention of making money from the Android market, suggesting that even they underestimated the potential of Android (and app stores) to grow into the operating system giant it is today.