Google Opens Android to Rival App Stores
Source: Deeplinks
Google's decision to distribute third-party app stores through the Play Store directly undermines its own gatekeeping power—the leverage that made Android's app ecosystem valuable to the company. Regulatory pressure from the EU's Digital Markets Act and antitrust cases forced the move, but it creates an opening for competitors like Samsung, Amazon, and Epic Games to build distribution independent of Google's control. The shift threatens Google's 30% commission on in-app purchases and creates surface for fragmentation, but also shows that dominant platforms can lose structural chokepoints when regulators raise the cost of control above the benefit.