[rahilb]

They do extract money from every sale… if rent was free the companies would be way more profitable as a major cost is removed. To put it another way, if you open a physical shop the first X% of your sales every day go only to costs and you must reach a certain amount of sales before your shop is profitable.

[toyg]

Of course, but it's a fixed cost that, if the shop is even mildly successful, will quickly become a single-digit percentage. London retail space (most expensive in UK, of course) goes for around £50 per square feet p/y, with revenues that will easily go 5x to 70x that. Elsewhere the difference is even higher. Which is why the richest companies in the world are the ones running appstores, not the ones holding retail properties: because they can get away with unescapable feudal rents that would not be tolerated in meatspace.