Google makes it easier to buy e-books from Amazon than from smaller booksellers by allowing for one-click purchases within the Android apps for Amazon's Kindle and Audible. Google and Apple don't typically allow seamless, one-click buying of digital items in smartphone apps unless they use their respective digital billing systems, of which Google and Apple take up to a 30% cut of the in-app purchase.
This is why many competing book apps like Bookshop, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble don't let you buy e-books and audiobooks from their apps, instead requiring you to buy from their websites. However Amazon doesn't seem to be paying Google a fee through its own one-click buy buttons, giving Amazon a rare privilege among digital booksellers.
The Kindle app for Android didn't let users buy e-books for several years, but appeared to restart sales around November 2024 with an announcement that read, “You can now buy Kindle books from the Android app.”
Andy Hunter, founder of independent online bookstore Bookshop.org, said his company wants its Android app purchasing for e-books to be “as seamless as the Amazon Kindle Android app, and we will be investigating how it is done and if we can potentially do the same thing.”
Google said Amazon doesn’t have a special deal, but both companies declined to offer specifics.
Meanwhile on iOS…
Last month, a federal judge ordered Apple to let iPhone apps sell their digital products, including e-books, audiobooks, and streaming video subscriptions, without going through Apple's digital payment system. Kindle, Audible, and Nook were among the first iPhone apps that quickly revamped their system to bypass Apple's in-app purchase fees.