Microsoft Store’s New Revenue Model Finally in Effect

Microsoft announced a new revenue model for the Microsoft Store back in May of last year. The company was supposed to deliver the new revenue model by late 2018, though it had failed to do so or notify developers about the delay. We reported about the incident back in January, and Microsoft is now finally delivering the new revenue model.

Microsoft Store’s new App Developer Agreement (ADA) states that developers can get up to 95% of their revenue as part of the new model. Developers will only have to pay a 5% Microsoft Store fee if a user installs their app through a campaign ID link. The same applies if the user finds their app through a web search.

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However, if a user discovers the app through the Microsoft Store search or other “Microsoft-owned” properties, developers will have to pay a 15% fee, getting 85% revenue in return.

The changes only apply to apps and do not include games.

And that is still a much better revenue model than before — considering developers always had to pay the 15% fee in the past, the 10% cut in fee could be a decent improvement for most. Of course, the 95%/5% revenue model does not apply to all types of acquisitions, so it will be interesting to see if Microsoft ends up bringing the 5% fee to all kinds of app acquisitions regardless of how your app is discovered by a user.

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Conversation 10 comments

  • dontbe evil

    07 March, 2019 - 7:39 am

    <p>nice</p><p><br></p><p>p.s.</p><p>site notifications (top/right) are still broken</p>

    • Chris Payne

      07 March, 2019 - 12:48 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#409704">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>*Still* broken? They've never worked! Paul really needs to ditch this horrible comment system and go with something standard like Disqus, where notifications (email and otherwise) have worked properly for years. </p>

      • hoomgar

        07 March, 2019 - 1:54 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#409833">In reply to unkinected:</a></em></blockquote><p>Exactly!&nbsp; On both counts.</p>

      • skane2600

        07 March, 2019 - 2:25 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#409833">In reply to unkinected:</a></em></blockquote><p>I stopped paying attention to notifications many months ago because they didn't seem to work properly. They should probably just kill that feature if they can't get it to work. </p>

  • mattbg

    Premium Member
    07 March, 2019 - 8:22 am

    <p>This makes a lot of sense – fees based on how the user discovers the app. It's right that Microsoft should get more if they bring the customer and less if the developer themselves brings the customer.</p>

  • chrishilton1

    Premium Member
    07 March, 2019 - 8:25 am

    <p>Microsoft should just scrap the fee and get developers interested in writing apps for the store, it's already almost too late for the store to succeed. Whilst it has done a great job with trashing OneNote and only making that as a store app now, you try searching for the Teams app in the store. And whilst I'm ranting, why are Project and Visio still separate apps and not part of the core of Office?</p>

  • markbyrn

    Premium Member
    07 March, 2019 - 9:02 am

    <p>Smart move. Given the state of the Windows Store, the 10% cut will be negligible to MSFT revenue. </p>

  • locust infested orchard inc

    07 March, 2019 - 11:03 am

    <p>If Microsoft had this Store revenue model from the outset upon the release of Windows Phone 7, the events that culminated in the official announcement of the death of W10M on 10th Dec 2019 could well have been so very different.</p><p><br></p><p>Support for W10M may well be dying tortuously slowly, but it still operates magnificently on my Lumia 950 XL.</p>

    • hoomgar

      07 March, 2019 - 1:53 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#409800">In reply to locust infested orchard inc:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yeah they&nbsp;let that boat sail without them or their customers.&nbsp; I also still like using my Icon as well.</p>

  • skane2600

    07 March, 2019 - 12:53 pm

    <p>95% of nothing is still nothing.</p>

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