Today Elon Musk complained about the App store fees, 30% which he thinks is excessive and claimed it as a fee on the internet. There is some merit to his argument, but congress is in love with Apple. Will they take a hard look at Apple’s policies disguised as helping customers are really to drive more ad revenue, app-store revenue to itself instead of the app owners like META or TWTR. Both APPL and GOOGL have regulatory risk on this.
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Actually he said it was a “secret fee”, which it’s obviously not. And others have complained - even launched lawsuits - and lost.
Tip for Elon: anybody can access Twitter through a browser. No App Store. No fees.
He has so much to learn.
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Many users access twitter over mobile devices. For that they download it from APP Store. Perhaps, TWTR should explicitly charge the users for download or redirect them to access via browser.
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Tip for Elon: anybody can access Twitter through a browser. No App Store. No fees.
The point is not the app, which is also free in the App store, so no fees to Apple. The point is that if you want to charge a monthly fee to subscribers, you can’t do that through the app, without forking over 30% every month, unless Apple cuts you a better deal, as they do with some big companies like Netflix, fearing that they will not put up with it and will go your suggested route. But Netflix and Twitter and Musk all know that every additional obstacle that a potential subscriber encounters will reduce the number of subscriptions.
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FYI: Netflix doesn’t have a “better deal”, they don’t allow you to signup or pay via their mobile app - you must do this on their website.
tecmo
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FYI: Netflix doesn’t have a “better deal”, they don’t allow you to signup or pay via their mobile app - you must do this on their website.
I stand corrected. Apple allows Netflix (and other subscription services) to link out and thus avoid the 30% charge. The point is, when you own half of the market for app stores, that 30% fee is getting close to monopoly-like rent. Twitter is right to push back, and Musk is perfectly aware of the cumbersome alternatives.
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DTB responds so fairly. It is my view that we are lucky to have him here, on this board.
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Just for the record, Google’s App store takes 30% (likewise, with some better side deals), and YouTube takes 45% of all advertising revenues for their ‘content creators’.
If we want to talk about “close to monopoly rents” I’d look to YouTube before an App store for a phone with an 18% worldwide market share. (Higher in the US, of course.)
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