That Didn’t Take Long. Google Introduces Subscription Service
By Chris Weiss
If you had any doubts that Apple and Google have become the Yankees and Red Sox of the tech world, today’s news should relieve you of those. Google has announced its One Pass subscription service, just a day after Apple introduced its own solution for in-app subscriptions.
And as is typically the case, Google delivers more control and flexibility to the actual content providers than Apple. While Apple plans to hang on to customer data, Google is giving that data to publishers. Google will only take 10 percent of subscription sales for its platform–one third of the 30 percent that Apple is grabbing.
Like Apple’s subscription platform, One Pass will allow publishers to set the price and frequency of their subscriptions. Aimed at magazine and newspaper publishers, One Pass will empower them to experiment with various types of offerings–subscriptions, metered access, “freemium” content and/or paid single articles to find what works best for their customers. Google will handle the payment processing.
Subscribers will be able to access content across devices–smartphones, computers, tablets, etc.–with one log-in.
The service is now available to publishers in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. [ Google Blog via CNET]
