Forum Discussion

stenlik's avatar
stenlik
Visitor
11 years ago

In-app purchase

If we would like to use in-app purchase in the channel application with use of the credit card and our payment gateway – are there any limitations regarding that? Why I am asking: e.g. for iOS/Apple apps it is not possible to make purchases without use of Apple billing mechanism and Apple charges 30% fee of the transaction. Similar requirements are also on some other platforms - how is Roku from that perspective?

I have seen that Roku has own Billing Service which when used, Roku charges a fee of 30% of net revenues. Is that mandatory to be used? Could that be used for TVOD movies model (e.g. user pays 2.99$ for movie or TV series rental for certain period)
Roku Developer Program

3 Replies

  • rarebrds's avatar
    rarebrds
    Channel Surfer
    11 years ago
    If you want to use the built in IAP mechanism, I think you would have to use Roku billing, and subject to the 30% fee. If you want to build your own however, I don't see it being specifically called out in the developer agreement. Actually, in the agreement it alludes to you being able to let the user know how to get help in the event something is wrong with your paid channel "(whether such subscriptions or billing arrangements are managed by Roku or otherwise)". I'm not a lawyer, but I think that spells out that you can create your own payment acceptance method.

    Link for reference

    http://wwwimg.roku.com/static/sdk/legal ... eement.pdf
    Section 5 Paragraph K
  • stenlik's avatar
    stenlik
    Visitor
    11 years ago
    "rarebrds" wrote:
    If you want to use the built in IAP mechanism, I think you would have to use Roku billing, and subject to the 30% fee. If you want to build your own however, I don't see it being specifically called out in the developer agreement. Actually, in the agreement it alludes to you being able to let the user know how to get help in the event something is wrong with your paid channel "(whether such subscriptions or billing arrangements are managed by Roku or otherwise)". I'm not a lawyer, but I think that spells out that you can create your own payment acceptance method.

    Link for reference

    http://wwwimg.roku.com/static/sdk/legal ... eement.pdf
    Section 5 Paragraph K


    Hello,

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts. The thing is that we are already using the single payment method and single provided across all platforms and we would like to extend it on Roku as well, so the reason is not 30% fee when using Roku billing, but simply we would like to stay unified across all platforms, where the billing is possible.

    I also did not found any restriction when it comes to the use of the payment method, so I assume Roku is pretty open in that aspect.

    Regards
    STeN
  • stenlik's avatar
    stenlik
    Visitor
    11 years ago
    I spend another hour browsing forums and among other information I found two interesting threads:

    1) viewtopic.php?f=34&t=64400&p=413361&hilit=billing+system#p413361 saying
    here is no requirement to use our billing system. Many developers do find it more convenient for themselves and their customers to use our billing system, but if you have the technical resources and know-how to create and integrate with your own, or integrate with a third party billing system, then you can do that instead.

    2) viewtopic.php?f=34&t=67575&p=463226&hilit=billing+system#p463226 saying
    We won't let you use our billing system for Adult content, you have to use your own.


    So it seems I found answer to my question.
    Thanks for helping me.
    Regards,
    STeN