On 10/8/11 7:21 AM, Jay Ashworth wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Erik Moeller"erik@wikimedia.org
They are?
Perhaps I've missed something big...
(Oh: you said "user-friendly")
Yeah. In-app billing is a feature of the Android Market platform and described here: http://developer.android.com/guide/market/billing/billing_overview.html
Ahhhh. While I'm a fairly avid user, I'm not an android developer, and I hadn't run across that. Interesting.
Checkouts are managed by Google, so no need in this case to implement a whole payments backend. Of course that's what the 30% fee is charged for. The terms state that it's limited to "digital goods" which is the kind of clause that you could drive a truck through. Looks like some folks are using it for donations and "selling" thank you messages.
Heh.
If we do this, we'd want to have a direct line w/ Google to clarify that it's OK, and ideally persuade them to waive the fee out of their love for Wikipedia. :-)
That should be yourself, or someone like you, talking directly to Larry or Sergey; that's how that sort of thing comes about.
FYI, I worked on Google Checkout back in 2005-2006, mostly internationalization and identity stuff, but I'm also familiar with how Google Checkout for Non-Profits works.
https://checkout.google.com/seller/npo/
Within Checkout, at least when I was working there, Digital Goods are supposed to be for things like software or in-game item purchases. You can pervert them to be donations, but that's not really what they are for, and you are limited to fixed amounts (i.e. you have separate donation buttons for $5, $10, $20, etc.)
Google Checkout for Non-Profits is designed for donations -- the big difference is that the donor can specify any amount for the transaction. (A normal Google Checkout transaction has security guarantees to both parties that the price the vendor sets is the price that gets paid. This involves signing the entire transaction; including price. But Checkout for Non-Profits can use a different verification technique for approved vendors.)
The other difference, getting your fees down to zero, is nowadays predicated on getting a Google Grant. There's a standard way to apply, but I'm sure we could also jump the queue if we pulled some strings.
I'm not sure how this intersects with the Android Market -- the regular Checkout rate is 2.9%, whereas all these "in-app" purchases seem to have pretty exorbitant rates. But the same guy was the tech lead for both Checkout and the Android Market, so if you have specific questions maybe I can open a channel. Google HATES doing customer service with a passion, so it can be hard to get answers if you want them to make an exception for you.
By the way, Aaron Muszalski, one of the new Community Department hires, was strongly pushing for in-app purchases in a mobile app as a possible way to get donations. Maybe he's already made some progress there -- I cc'ed him on this discussion.