Android: using alternative payment services

Question

We have web-service where users have virtual balance.

And now we develope Android application, and needed to use alternative payment services (like PayPal or cards) to replenish the balance.

But Google threatening Android app makers who use alternative payment services for In-App.

But we want to use payment services for replenish the balance, not for In-App. Will there be a problem with the rules? If yes, than i can use only Google Wallet for this, and they will take large commission for all operations, right?

Stack Overflow is for programming questions. Stack Overflow is not a law office, nor an accounting firm. Please hire appropriate professionals for those disciplines, and take your question to those professionals. — CommonsWare, May 23 '14 at 13:59
@CommonsWare there is http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ for programming questions. This question is for programmers who had the same problem. Instead of help, you prefer to blame the question. Realy nice. — Suvitruf - Andrei Apanasik, May 23 '14 at 15:42

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered May 27 '14 at 16:30

It all depends what you mean by "balance".

Google authorize use of other payment services when your app sell material goods or virtual goods that can be used outside of the app.

From Google Play Developer Program Policies :

Developers offering virtual goods or currencies within a game downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app billing service as the method of payment.

Developers offering additional content, services or functionality within another category of app downloaded from Google Play must use Google Play's in-app billing service as the method of payment, except:

where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g., buying movie tickets, or buying a publication where the price also includes a hard copy subscription); or

where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g., buying songs that can be played on other music players).

So :

If your "balance" is for a game : Google Wallet.
If your balance is used outside of your app (e.g. a website) : Anything.
If your balance is used to buy material good or services : Anything.
All the other case : Google Wallet.

@Shtwim balance was used on website. Now we wфnted to use it in app on iOS/Android too. — Suvitruf - Andrei Apanasik, May 27 '14 at 16:58
@Suvitruf if it's not a game, seems you can use any payment service you like. — Matthieu Harlé, May 27 '14 at 17:02

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 23 '14 at 03:08

My understanding is that if you publish in the Play Store, all payments have to go through Wallet. Amazon seems more coy about their requirements but I would be surprised if they did not have a similar requirement (especially since those apps go onto their flagship product, the Kindle Fire tablets). And, yes, the requirement is there so they make money (I believe all of them are 70/30 splits). End-running it with any in-app purchases would likely result in your app being de-published.

What you could try (DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a lawyer) is having people pay on your website and then have them access that through the app. I don't think there's any such restriction like that (I access plenty of paid services through apps that I don't pay for in apps).

but there is PayPall sdk for example https://github.com/paypal/PayPal-Android-SDK. In your logic, i cant use it? — Suvitruf - Andrei Apanasik, May 23 '14 at 09:03
The fact that PayPal has a system to accept payments doesn't change the Google Play or Amazon Appstore TOS. I can still write an app and publish it outside those channels and use any payment system I want, it's just much harder to get it to end users. — Machavity, May 23 '14 at 12:22

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 27 '14 at 14:48

"Developers who sell virtual merchandise or currency have to use Google Wallet...." No you cannot sell virtual currency outside of the play store unless it's a digital merchandise that can be used outside of this app. Now the question is whether a digital currency on a site can be counted towards this. I would direct my question to google because they haven't stated the definition very clearly. But if you have some sort of a casino, I would guess it would be fine to use e.g PayPal.

Developer Content Policy

Android: using alternative payment services

3 Answers3