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Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

techcrunch.com

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Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#51

Post by ianai »

I’m devaluing this disagreement. Tell me one reason that we at the consumer level should care whether Apple or Netflix win this one? At my level, I see the smartphone market dominated by Apple and Google. If you don’t like what those two do then you can’t buy a smartphone. They own something like 99.9999% of the market. This is basically super large corporation vs large corporation. Wake me up for the fight to break up the duopoly.

Edit-My comment is on topic. I’m stating that the financial stakeholders literally are not hacker news. But disrupting a duopoly definitely is HN-worthy.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#53

Post by lozenge »

soneca wrote: post #33

Why call it "tax" if it is a fee? The article shows numbers based on a 30% fee when it explicitly says it is actually 15%. "meaning Apple was making around $700,000 by doing nothing other than allowing Netflix to offer subscriptions in its app" It seems a bit unfair also. I have no horse in this race, but the author seems to have

15% after a year of subscription. Many people will cancel within their first year (perhaps not forever)

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#54

Post by atombender »

ianai wrote: post #51

I’m devaluing this disagreement. Tell me one reason that we at the consumer level should care whether Apple or Netflix win this one? At my level, I see the smartphone market dominated by Apple and Google. If you don’t like what those two do then you can’t buy a smartphone. They own something like 99.9999% of the market. This is basically super large corporation vs large corporation. Wake me up for the fight to break…

This isn't about consumers. This article is about Netflix's business.

Sure, new consumers of the iOS app will have to subscribe in a different way, but this has a minimal impact on users.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#55

Post by briandear »

writepub wrote: post #30

It's ludicrous for Apple to state they somehow increased business for Netflix, because they allowed "sign-up" via iOS. That's like Google claiming they allowed sign-up via chrome, or AT&T claiming they allowed sign up via their Network. Apple adds ZERO value via the app store, both for devs and for the consumers.

Except they do handle your billing, sales taxes (in every jurisdiction,) cancelations. They also deal with chargebacks as well. While a Netflix type company is perfectly capable of doing it themselves, it’s a stretch to say “ZERO” value or devs or consumers.

As a consumer, so can go into my App Store account and instantly cancel any subscription. Try that with Angie’s List or any of the numerous newspapers (including The NY Times,) those places make you call in to cancel and it can be a big pain. Apple also ensures I don’t have to give my personal information to various companies, not to mention credit card information. When was the last time Apple’s credit card data has been breached? Compare that to many other companies. If Apple didn’t offer the subscription to various things, I’d be far less likely to subscribe. So at least in my anecdotal case, appStoreValue > 0.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#56

Post by DennisAleynikov »

ianai wrote: post #51

I’m devaluing this disagreement. Tell me one reason that we at the consumer level should care whether Apple or Netflix win this one? At my level, I see the smartphone market dominated by Apple and Google. If you don’t like what those two do then you can’t buy a smartphone. They own something like 99.9999% of the market. This is basically super large corporation vs large corporation. Wake me up for the fight to break…

The duopoly is false since google does not control android the same abusive way apple does.

there are android forks that arent google controlled. most of googles software thats useful has open source cores that dont have anything to do with googles ad machinery or other pet peeves people have with google.

there is no smartphone duopoly and you are extremely off base.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#57

Post by ianai »

atombender wrote: post #54
ianai wrote: post #51

I’m devaluing this disagreement. Tell me one reason that we at the consumer level should care whether Apple or Netflix win this one? At my level, I see the smartphone market dominated by Apple and Google. If you don’t like what those two do then you can’t buy a smartphone. They own something like 99.9999% of the market. This is basically super large corporation vs large corporation. Wake me up for the fight to break…

This isn't about consumers. This article is about Netflix's business. Sure, new consumers of the iOS app will have to subscribe in a different way, but this has a minimal impact on users.

If Netflix wins then Netflix will have a financial windfall. But very probably there will be a carve out so that a company has to be Netflix-size to gain the benefits.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#59

Post by pfranz »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #24

2019 may be the year the 30% cut officially dies. All in the last few months: - Epic Games refused to release Fortnite via the Play Store - Valve lowered it's cut from 30% for major publishers to keep them from leaving - Epic Games then announced a store with a 12% cut for PC and Android (the latter coming in 2019) - Discord followed by announcing a 10% cut - Netflix has pulled out of paying Apple's 30% cut - There's…

I feel like 30% works for one-time purchases between $1-10. Which is what I figure most Apple App Store apps go for. No matter how you cut it you're still going to pay credit card transaction fees. Most of the PC games are likely between $10-60, where 30% makes less sense (the marginal bandwidth, storage, etc isn't that much more expensive).

However, digital platforms like Apple's are a now a lot more mature and have reached a scale where the costs should be coming down. I've been wishing for decades that credit card fees would go down.

Re: Netflix stops paying the ‘Apple tax’ on its $853M in annual iOS revenue

#60

Post by wernercd »

kraftman wrote: post #18
MrMember wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was kind of surprised when I canceled my Netflix account. I had a laundry list of complaints I was going to put in the "why are you canceling" box but they never gave me one. Making it easy and painless to cancel is one of the few things they're still doing right.

What were your reasons?

To see what they'd ask?
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