Amazon Underground Aims To Be The Netflix Of Apps

Details of how the Amazon app "Amazon Underground" works for developers has surfaced this week after the app itself was let loose just days ago. We'd wondered how Amazon would manage to attract developers to a system where their otherwise money-making apps would be offered entirely free. Now we know. Amazon's system has developers payed by the 5-minute segment of use. If you use an app for an hour, the developer who made said app will receive 12-cents.

And yes, that does mean Amazon has access to data on how long each app from the Amazon Underground is used on your device. Apps downloaded from the Amazon Underground are free, and no in-app purchases are offered in any of the apps therein.

As we found from Amazon earlier this week, the Amazon Underground system is forever. Just so long as a developer keeps their app in the Amazon Underground, that app will remain free.

See more at: Amazon Underground: invading Google's Android once again.

Amazon also has advertisements inside the Amazon Underground app which they'll profit from – but how Amazon will profit from this deal beyond that, we're not entirely sure.

For now Amazon is just being especially up front with developers through their developer portal. They need these developers of apps and games to make Amazon Underground work from the get-go.

How is this like Netflix? Each movie, TV show, or made-for-Netflix special has its own payment schedule. Netflix pays content distributors per viewing. The difference is we know where Netflix' own profit comes from in this case – it comes from payment plans from viewers like you.

Where does Amazon's Underground cash come from, besides tiny advertisements strewn throughout its base app? Maybe we'll find out when the next Fire device is revealed.