Without giving any detailed information, Madfinger Games announced that because the piracy rates of their game Dead Trigger were so high on Android, they made the game available for free. This sucks balls. I'm interested in more detailed statistics, especially where, exactly, the piracy rate is highest, considering you can only get paid Google Play applications in 31 countries, and then, often only with a credit card (which many people outside of the US don't have and/or use). It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if those piracy rates mostly come from places without paid applications support and/or with lousy payment options. In any case, Google needs to get its act together with the Play Store.
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Member since:2005-07-08
Member since:2011-01-28
pepa,
"I've often been giving payment options online, where it specifically stated that they charge a fee for using a credit card. So I'm not sure to what extent Visa is enforcing this."
Just this month Visa & MasterCard settled a 7 billion dollar lawsuit over price fixing.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-13/visa-mastercard-settle-mer...
"The agreement, which provides for a temporary reduction in rates for merchants and allows them to impose surcharges on customer purchases, follows a seven-year legal battle with U.S. retailers that accused the two largest payment networks of conspiring with banks to fix swipe fees, or interchange."
I've heard from other sources as well that surcharge fee prohibitions may be eliminated.
For a long time now, I've seen more and more merchants explicitly passing along the fees to customers (or waive fees for cash paying customers), like gas stations and mechanics. And to be honest, I think it's the only way to make credit card companies compete for lower fees, which is good in the long term. It will just take a while for these changes to adjust themselves.
Ideally the credit/debit card fees should be tacked onto the receipt so that the customer knows how much they're paying their credit card company for the transaction. This would put an end to "reward programs" once consumers realise the rewards are actually a negative cashflow for them. Instead they'll hunt down cards with lower fees, which is as it should be.
Member since:
2008-08-03
Credit cards are typically free or very cheap, for the buyer. They're paid for by the sellers, typically 2-3% of every transaction. It's also prohibited by Visa, etc. to charge extra to cover these transaction fees. That's why many places will offer a 'cash discount' instead.
Edited 2012-07-23 15:57 UTC