Apple's new plans are also being closely watched by EU regulators.
Apple. Under legal pressure from the European Union,Apple reluctantly opened up the long-closed iOS ecosystemto allow developers to provide users with access to third-party app stores. However, Apple has left a trick behind it and introduced a new "Apple tax" that has left developers in the throat.
For those apps that want to operate in third-party stores, Apple has introduced a new fee structure. On the surface, this seems great: if an app is sold through a third-party store, Apple won't take a cut of it. If developers still want to promote through Apple's App Store, the share will be reduced from the traditional 30% to 17%. For eligible "small business" apps, the commission is reduced from the initial 15% to 10%. It looks like it's a good deal.
The "poison pill" program
However, the problem is that after the application is on fireγAny app with more than 1 million installs per year must pay Apple 50 cents (about 3.).9 RMB), which is charged per user per year. The trouble is that app updates also count as installs. Since mainstream apps don't go unupdated for more than a year, this effectively means that any app that's popular enough will pay Apple 50 cents per user per year indefinitely. Not only apps, but third-party app stores must also pay Apple a fee of 50 cents per user every year, regardless of whether the number of installs reaches 1 million or not.
That's a lot of money. Facebook, for example, has 40.8 billion monthly active users. The iPhone accounts for about one-third of the European mobile phone market. If one-third of Facebook users have the iPhone app installed, then Meta, the parent company of Facebook, would have to pay Apple 67.5 million euros (about 5.) per year200 million RMB). It's just Facebook, Meta also owns WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and other apps, which also have to pay Apple. Moreover, this number only counts active users. Meta also has to pay for users who installed the app years ago but never opened it but still updates automatically.
For smaller apps, Apple's charging policy is also particularly harsh. It's easy to surpass 1 million installs for a popular app, and since many apps don't charge users upfront (or never charge at all), they can quickly cost a lot of cash. This can be a devastating situation for short-lived social apps like clubhouse, a social audio app. They pay millions of dollars for their popularity, and then they continue to pay millions of dollars because consumers don't use their apps.
That's the price of being free from Apple's shackles. Developers can use third-party app stores to get rid of Apple's revenue share and restrictive App Store rules, but then they have to pay high fees for app installation. If they can't stand it, they can go back to the App Store and continue to be raked 30%, which is probably what Apple wants to see.
D**id Heinemier Hansson, an executive at software company Basecamp, believes that this charging mechanism is clearly "one of the poison pills" in Apple's plans. But he thinks it's worth it for a company of Spotify's size, "It's still a lot more cost-effective than a crazy 30% rake." β
"Naked blackmail".
Some critics have already begun to complain about Apple's 50 euro cent charge. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney veilly refers to it as a "junk fee." Previously, Epic sued Apple to the Supreme Court over the commission issue.
Spotify, a streaming service, is one of Apple's biggest critics, calling Apple's new plan to comply with EU regulations "a complete farce." Spotify published an article on its ** saying that Apple's new app install fees are "naked blackmail" and that Apple is trying to force developers not to leave its app store.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote on X: "Spotify itself is facing an unsustainable situation because of Apple's new policy. Given that we have an Apple app install base of around 100 million in the EU, this new tax on ** and updates could significantly increase our user acquisition costs, potentially by a factor of 10 ......Under the new terms, we can't afford these fees if we want to be a profitable company, so our only option is to maintain the status quo and continue to use the App Store. β
Apple spokesman Fred Sainz responded in a statement that Apple is "happy to support the success of all developers, including Spotify." "The app changes we're sharing in the EU give developers more choice, and they have new options for distributing iOS apps and processing payments," Sainz said. Each developer can choose to maintain the status quo. Under the new terms, more than 99% of developers will pay Apple the same or less. β
StillApple's new plans are also being closely watched by EU regulators. Thierry Breton, president of the European Union's Industry Commission, said on Friday that Apple would face strong action if its changes to the app store did not comply with upcoming EU regulations.