Google One Pass: Apple app subscription rival announced

Google has revealed today that it too will be offering an app subscription service for publishers, called Google One Pass.

Just yesterday Apple announced that it would allow publishers to offer subscriptions to their magazine apps through the App Store.

Google, not wanting to be left out in the publishing cold, has unveiled its own system for this.

One Pass, according to Google, is a new revenue stream for publishers, one that allows users to purchase a mag app once and view anywhere.

It will allow publishers to offer subscriptions, day passes, metered access, pay-per-article and multi-issue packages of their apps.

Easy to implement

"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," said Google.

"Publishers have flexibility over payment models and control over the digital content for which they charge and the content that is free for consumers."

Google continued: "Google One Pass is easy to implement and simple to manage. The set up is minimal and content will be managed through a simple online interface, so publishers can try out different approaches to selling content with minimal development cost and see what works for their business.

"It is powered by Google Checkout, so publishers' e-commerce and payment processing needs are covered, and there is no need to build a third-party payment system into publishers' sites."

Google One Pass is currently intended for periodicals, such as news and magazines, but is a flexible payment system that can be used for many other types of content.

Google is looking to charge 10 per cent for the privilege of using One Pass, which is significantly less than the 30 per cent cut that Apple is currently asking for.

Want to find out more? Google has created a little video about the whole thing.