ACT the App Association Morning Consult Polling Small Business Growth Depends on Trusted and Secure Marketplaces

ACT | The App Association/Morning Consult released polling indicating that Americans living in 10 states strongly support efforts to protect small app developers’ growth while maintaining a trusted digital marketplace with consistent security standards applied to both large and small businesses.  Consumer trust is built through trusted marketplaces which are key for small business growth. For small app developers to do well in the market, consumers must see them as trustworthy, and the app stores’ security reviews help app companies earn that trustworthy reputation. The bills would undo security reviews, which would disproportionately harm small businesses in the eyes of consumers. Consumers indicate that for them to consider small app makers as viable competitors with large brands, they should be continued to be held to the same security standards. When asked if small businesses should have to follow the same or different security standards, 78 percent of adults polled believe that the same security standards should apply to both small and large businesses. Small businesses rely heavily on trusted marketplaces, which give clients and customers a safe and secure place to access digital products and services. Without those established protections provided by an app store, more than 64 percent of consumers have growing concerns around personal data.  Increasing consumer costs starts with lower operating costs. The bills would mandate that software platforms stop providing certain services that benefit small app companies, which would increase costs for smaller app makers while benefiting larger companies that can perform those functions in-house or outsource them in pieces. This, along with the bills’ prohibitions on variable treatment between developers, could upset fee reductions app stores recently implemented for app makers with less than $1 million in digital-only/in-app purchase sales per year. When asked if it was fair to reduce fees for small app developers to operate on the digital marketplaces, more than half of adults agreed that reduced fees were fair to those earning less than $1 million per year. Small businesses need access to trusted marketplaces to compete and operate. More than 77 percent of adults polled indicated they would be strongly concerned about small app developers if Congress passed legislation aimed at compromising trusted digital marketplaces.  Finally, Congressional consideration of the bills makes 86 to 91 percent of consumers concerned about the security of their personal information.  About ACT | The App Association: The App Association represents app makers and connected device companies in the mobile economy. Organization members leverage the connectivity of smart devices to create innovative solutions that make our lives better.  Press contact: Karen Groppe, [email protected] Source: ACT | The App Association