Google Releases ‘One Pass’ – A Direct Shot at Apple’s Subscription Model?
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The last couple of weeks have been full of controversy about Apple’s “in-app” subscription model. We can assume several publishers are not too happy with Apple retaining 30% revenue from all transactions.
Google seemed to have noticed that, and today officially talked about their new subscription system at a Berlin event. Their system aims at giving all readers access to digital magazines and newspapers while giving publishers a lot of room to work with when selling their publications.
Google is marketing their new One Pass system as a solution that offers a “purchase-once, view-anywhere functionality” that allows you to buy and view content across all of your devices.
One Pass also offers a flexible business model to publishers that have the option to offer free digital access to publications (via print subscriptions), or offer consumers a variety of buying options based on metered access, day passes, pay per article, multi-issue packages and more. Google has explained in detail how the system will work:
“By providing a system for user authentication, payment processing, and administration, Google One Pass lets publishers focus on creating high quality content for their readers. Publishers have flexibility over payment models and control over the digital content for which they charge and the content that is free for consumers.”
“Publishers have control over how users can pay to access content and set their own prices. They can sell subscriptions of any length with auto-renewal, day passes (or other durations), individual articles or multiple-issue packages. Google One Pass also enables metered models, where a publisher can provide some content or a certain number of visits for free, but can charge frequent visitors or those interested in premium content based on the business model that the publisher prefers.”
Google’s new subscription model will leverage Google Checkout. According to some reports, publishers will keep 90% of the revenue from One Pass sales, which is a higher percentage compared to the 70% share offered by Apple’s subscription service. In addition, Google has stated that their partners will have total control over what content is accessed through One Pass and what content is free to users.
Google has mentioned they decided to launch the One Pass system because the company “cares a lot about helping high quality content thrive online and about the future of journalism”. The One Pass system will initially be available to publishers in the UK, US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany and Spain, with a plan to expand further in the future.
It’s clear that Google has given another option to publishers and content providers by aiming directly at Apple’s new and controversial billing system. There are several Android-based tablets in the market, and we assume more to come. Most of the new tablets will certainly focus on e-books and the One Pass system as a tactic to provide possibly a more affordable distribution channel for publishers. Will they be able to take away market share from the iPad? An interesting story that we will watch very closely.
