Today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing will explore competition in app stores

To understand the enormous value created by app stores, you have to look back at the world before they existed

We explain how app stores benefitted both users & developers
https://techfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/TechFreedom-Comments-on-App-Stores-4.21.21.pdf

The value app stores create isn't primarily economic: it's ensuring user trust by protecting the privacy of user data, the security of their devices, and even users' physical safety against those who might stalk them

App stores are especially important for families, protecting kids against a variety of threats, and empowering parents to decide what apps & media are appropriate for their kids

Parents simply did not have such powerful control before app stores launched in 2008

Some complain about commissions (15-30%) on leading app stores

But it wasn't so long ago that most software was distributed in physical media, and middlemen took 50-70%

App stores made distribution vastly more efficient, radically boosting developers' net revenues

Apple & Google's app stores are integral parts of their operating systems. Since launching in 2008, they've created an entirely new market for downloadable apps

The market for downloadable *desktop* software in 2008 was tiny. Even on the leading proto-app store, only one app had more than a million downloads http://web.archive.org/web/20080711173440/http://www.download.com/2001-2001_4-0.html

App stores addressed consumers' need for trust and convenience in multiple dimensions, vetting regular updates to apps and pushing them out to users' phones for automatic installation, and offering a unified, trusted payment system and mechanism for resolving disputes/refunds

While Apple and Google charged a higher commission (30%) than Download .com did (8-12%), they *created* an infinitely larger market, provided development tools, and easy ways to reach consumers

Some claim that Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon abuse "gatekeeper" power over their app stores

But the commissions they charge have only fallen: both Apple and Google recently cut their commission in half, to 15%, for the first million in revenue

Meanwhile, Aptoide, a leading competing app store, charges 25% across the board

And in China, where the Play store is not available, alternative app stores can charge commissions as high as 50% https://inc42.com/features/the-many-sides-of-google-play-stores-30-commission-indias-search-for-alternatives

In short, there's no reason to think that app stores are earning monopoly rents in how they split revenue with developers

Innovation is steadily eroding the importance of getting app into app stores

Progressive Web Applications PWAs now offer much of the functionality of apps, and are actually much cheaper to develop

They run in the browser (even iOS), so don't require approval or commissions

Various pending state bills would force OS makers to allow "sideloading": installation of unverified apps from the Internet

Sideloading creates serious privacy and security risks

Android, Windows and MacOS already allows this today while iOS does not. That's the market at work.

Requiring the installation of third-party app stores creates the same risks as sideloading--unless those stores screen apps just as carefully. Amazon tries to do that but other alternative app stores just can't. It's a hugely costly and complex undertaking.

Finally, some have proposed to require app stores to allow developers to use alternative payment systems. This would have the same effect as price caps: allowing developers to free-ride off the app store and OS that is supported by revenues from the app store

Congress (and states) shouldn't rush into legislating around app stores. The market is thriving, and there's too much at stake for consumers to risk getting this wrong

At a minimum, let the #antitrust suits over market power in app stores play out in court before legislating

Tune in at 2:30 eastern for the Senate Judiciary hearing on app stores: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/antitrust-applied-examining-competition-in-app-stores