I want to use Google Play's in-app billing for one of my applications. But it seems I can't use it.
First problem is that according to supported locations for merchants my country - Turkey - is not in the list.
And as a second problem, my app is listed on some other markets except Google Play. Google Play in-app billing overview section In-app Billing Requirements and Limitations says that In-app billing can be implemented only in applications that you publish through Google Play. Therefore even if Turkey will be in merchant list in the future, I could not use Google Play's in-app billing for other markets. Is that right?
Then I thought using other APIs like ZooZ, Authorize.net (Actually, I did not examine them deeply, but I guess they do what I want)
But this time I read in Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement that All fees received by Developers for Products distributed via the Market must be processed by the Market's Payment Processor. Is that a problem for using such APIs? If so, what should I do for in-app purchase?
If your country is not supported, you can't really use In-App billing for your app. You could look at alternate stores, for example, Amazon app store. they have recently implemented In-App billing.
https://developer.amazon.com/welcome.html
The simple answer for Google Play would be "No" for now, till Google supports Turkey.
Get a bank account in a country that does support merchant accounts.
Related
We are going to build a mobile app for iOS and Android (might build a web app later) where users can upload videos and their friends and followers can watch them. The videos can be either free or also be tagged with a price. If I tag a video with $1 when uploading it, my friends and followers will have to first pay $1 to watch and after paying that $1 they can watch it any time after that.
My client wants to use Authorize.net to do the payments. In iOS there are restrictions like we must use IAP for such feature. Similarly is there any restrictions on Android as well, that we must use Google In-app Billing or is it OK to use Authorize.net to do the payments?
Taken from this page:
Payments
Apps that employ in-store or in-app purchases must comply with the
following guidelines:
In-store purchases: Developers charging for apps and downloads from
Google Play must use Google Play’s payment system. In-app purchases:
Developers offering products within a game downloaded on Google Play or providing access to game content must use Google Play In-app
Billing as the method of payment.
Developers offering products within another category of app downloaded on Google Play must use Google Play In-app Billing as the
method of payment, except for the following cases:
Payment is solely for physical products
Payment is for digital content that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g. songs that can be played on other music players).
In-app virtual currencies must only be used within the app where they were first purchased.
Developers must not mislead users about the apps they are selling nor about any in-app services, goods, content, or functionality
offered for purchase. If your product description on Google Play
refers to in-app features that may require a specific or additional
charge, your description must clearly notify users that payment is
required to access those features.
So I guess the answer is no, you have to use Google Play in-app billing if you want to publish the app in the play store. But the policy states that digital content under some circumstances is excluded, I guess this applies to videos as well, although I'm not to sure about it. Depends on whether the videos can be played outside of the app (at least so it seems).
My application is used to buy journey tickets. The ticket price is different everytime. Can I use In-App Billing to make the user pay a custom price everytime? If so how? i.e. can I set the price which the user has to pay programmatically?
You cannot programmaticaly change the price of a product using Google Play In-App Billing .You could fix the price in the Android developer Console .If you still want to custom price at the runtime you could use PAYPAL for that :
https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/products/mobile-overview
You cannot use Google Play In-App Billing to make the user pay a custom price.
Moreover you cannot use Google Play In-App Billing to sell physical goods and services like journey tickets:
You can use In-app Billing to sell only digital content. You cannot use In-app Billing to sell physical goods, personal services, or anything that requires physical delivery. Unlike with priced applications, once the user has purchased an in-app product there is no refund window.
http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_overview.html
Your use case perfectly fits the Google Wallet Instant Buy API for Android. Google Wallet Instant Buy API for Android is specifically for physical goods and services and has a simple integration into your Android App. It was launched during Google I/O 2013 and you can get an overview at the following blog post:
http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2013/05/fast-and-easy-checkout-for-android-apps.html
Also, please checkout the Google I/O Talk on the same topic
https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/330844794
Since this is still in beta, if you're interested please sign up using the interest form
http://getinstantbuy.withgoogle.com/
I am integrating in-app purchase into my application but I have a few questions that I have not been able to find answer to.
Can anyone tell me what are the fees that google applies per transaction for selling digital content thru in app purchase using google payment flow?
30% charge as a standard :) Google Fee's Specifically:
In-app billing is available to developers in supported locations for merchants. In-app billing may only be applied to digital goods sold inside applications distributed through Google Play. The Google Play program policies apply to in-app transactions. The standard 30% transaction fee applies to in-app transactions on Google Play.
I've pretty much only found out that "You must have a Google Wallet Merchant account to use Google Play In-app Billing." But I don't understand... What is it for? Do I actually need this? What does it do? How and where do I get one, and does it cost anything? The Google Wallet website seems to only have information for actual stores, not apps.
What I want is there to be a free, limited version of my app, but the user could pay a monthly subscription to get access to the full features.
I found out that what they mean by "Google Wallet merchant" is just "Google Checkout". "Google Wallet" has two parts, the app and online. The app is just for NFC purchases and nothing else, you cannot use any prepaid money on the Google Wallet app to buy anything on Google Play. The other part is the payment system that Google runs. This second part was formerly called Google Checkout, but a few months ago they merged Google Checkout and the Google Wallet system into one name to keep their money systems consistent.
TL;DR - you do not need Google Wallet to use in-app billing. You need Google Checkout, which is easier to register for and free.
I am considering to do an in-app purchase model within a paid app that releases or adds video content if the user opts in via a google check out method. Does anyone know how to do this from a coding standpoint? and does anyone know if this is possible?
thank you ahead of time...
It is possible do in-app purchases with Google's new In-App Billing services, see the documentation here:
http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/index.html
However, note that In-App Billing relies on the 2.3 version of the Android Market .
NOTE: Old version of my answer, before
In-App billing was announced
Unfortunately, there are not official
mechanisms to do micropayments on
Android apps distributed via the
Android Market yet. You also are not
allowed to implement your own methods
according to the Android Market
Developer Agreement:
All fees received by Developers for
Products distributed via the Market
must be processed by the Market's
Payment Processor
Google offers no API to handle
payments, and all payments must be
handled by the Market's Payment
Processor, so it's catch 22.
1:
http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html
As of 2/2/11, Google announced it's releasing in-app purchase for Android apps. The SDK is now available while the in-app purchase will be "live to users prior to the end of this quarter." (Q1/2011)