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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

#311

Post by aaronbrager »

joelrunyon wrote: post #239
threeseed wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a small app developer, I can tell you first hand that Apple only promotes and supports larger apps in the ecosystem I have friends at Apple who curate the App Store and I have a number of apps on the store as well. Your statement is categorically wrong. Apple absolutely supports small developers. If you look through many of their "editor playlists" you will see plenty of smaller apps that get a lot of attention…

As an indie developer - HOW do you get in touch with them? We have rave reviews on one of our apps and a very enthusiastic community in a unique space, but having a hell of a time getting the eye of anyone at Apple.

Did you fill out the form?

https://developer.apple.com/contact/app-store/promote/

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

#312

Post by etse »

sah2ed wrote: post #273
etse wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one who is convinced Apple is focused on privacy because its cloud tech is really far behind Google and privacy was a path largely ignored in a data driven world? Don’t get me wrong—I like that they pursue the privacy angle but if the company’s strengths allowed them to compete with modern web/ads services companies, I think they would not have focused on privacy as much.

You'd be hard pressed to find any credible source for your conviction. Apple's privacy stance is what Steve Jobs believed in, and what Tim Cook has stuck with, because they know that leaving privacy-based decisions up to third-party developers never ends well. Here are excerpts from Jobs 2010 interview with Walt Mossberg [0]: “Silicon Valley is not monolithic,” Jobs responded, “We’ve always had a very different view…

I honestly don't expect to be able to cite any sources regarding Apple's decisions based on their level of transparency into their business.

It seems perfectly compatible for Jobs to make those statements about privacy after weighing the cost for Apple to implement robust cloud infrastructure and services, and (potentially) deciding Apple would just not compete in that space.

It's like Google finally conceding it won't be a social network, only not having wasted a ton of resources before pulling the plug. Actually, with their messaging apps being spun up and spun down, Google may still be in the midst of pulling.

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

#313

Post by trollied »

jsjohnst wrote: post #261
tanilama wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because they sell to Costco at a price cheaper than the sale price. How is it different here. Apple Store is no cheaper and 30% is a huge cut, many service providers raise the price for iOS user to compensate this. So customer gets no benefit paying the 30% premium, at least not in Netlfix's case. Watching Netflix on iPhone doesn't necessary make a different experience. This is all because Apple had a monopoly on i…

Virtually every major budget retail store averages 30% margin or more on stuff sold there (Walmart, Target, Amazon, etc), especially for consumer electronics.

The margin on Apple products is small though. ~5%

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

#314

Post by peteretep »

contactlight11 wrote: post #288
peteretep wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what I’m adding here, but I used to feel this way about PayPal and Amazon too. PayPal lost my loyalty years ago, Amazon I now run all products through a review checker and don’t buy clothes from them anymore

What do you use instead of PayPal? Just enter your credit card on every site you buy something from? Definitely curious, because Google Pay and Amazon Payments are the only alternatives I can think of and neither are as widely adopted as PayPall.

Yep, credit card everywhere and trust the fraud teams to save me. Only had a single fraudulent transaction once ever.

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

#315

Post by trollied »

spullara wrote: post #125
zaidf wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could not disagree more. It requires 5+ taps and just as many obscure screens to cancel a subscription to an iOS app. If Apple were really serious, they would have an app called Subscriptions.

App Store -> Profile Pic -> Manage Subscriptions

Whilst true, it’s not intuitive to the majority of users.

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

#316

Post by justtopost »

lance76 wrote: post #178
stcredzero wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to blame anyone for leaving any store when there has been almost nothing of value added in years and things are even regressing. That 30% should have gone a lot further It's not really a market if the seller thinks there's no alternatives, and the buyer has no choice but to put up with anything. Works the other way around, too.

This misses the point. It is not equal. I choose Apple's store for one Very Big Reason over almost all other third-party services: I trust them with my financial details. I don't have to 'beg' to later cancel my subscription. I don't have to worry about my credit card being stolen. I don't have to worry about a bunch of sophomoric engineers breaking their own website and creating grief for me. I am in control with Ap…

As long as Apple operates its services in china, I have no faith in ANY of their empty privacy promises. Publicly refusing to unlock phones and yet always allowing persistent backdoors used by anyone with 40k and a cell searching device is a nice way of turning their heads and proclaiming everything is fine.

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

#317

Post by MatekCopatek »

juiced wrote: post #307
kalleboo wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not allowed to use other payment methods inside your app. You CAN require someone to separately browse to your website and sign up there, and incidentally use that same login in your app. Directly linking to the online payment form from your app is not allowed either. This is how other apps like e.g. Amazon Kindle work

That explains a lot, I was redirecting to the website from a "Subscribe" link in the app. Maybe if I just called the link "Sign up" it would've been a different story. Anyway, I like having the subscription option in the app, it makes it much easier for the user to sign up, without the need to go to the website and fill in the forms.

Everyone likes it, it makes subscriptions easier - that's why Apple is actively blocking it.

I'm not sure where exactly the line is though, I remember some stories where apps were rejected because they said something in terms of "You can't subscribe in this app as that would mean Apple gets 30% of your subscription, but you can go to our website and register there".

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

#318

Post by pas »

max76 wrote: post #141
stemuk wrote: post #136

Personally I feel like the most ridiculous part about the App Store is Apples so called "developer program". Charging 99€ a Year for a nearly nonexistent service is absurd, especially since they are already taking the 30% cut. I am a flutter developer myself, so technically I could publish all my apps on iOS and Android with minimal changes. But since Apples developer program would eat up a significant portion of my…

I like the $99/yr bar of entry. That, combined with the more rigid review process, keeps the App Store's average app quality higher than the Play Store's.

It makes a lot of apps simply impossible to exist. (Indie dev made an app for themselves catering to a niche, also wanting to put up their app for free.)

This trade off is typically okay for iFolk though.

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

#319

Post by sah2ed »

etse wrote: post #312
sah2ed wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be hard pressed to find any credible source for your conviction. Apple's privacy stance is what Steve Jobs believed in, and what Tim Cook has stuck with, because they know that leaving privacy-based decisions up to third-party developers never ends well. Here are excerpts from Jobs 2010 interview with Walt Mossberg [0]: “Silicon Valley is not monolithic,” Jobs responded, “We’ve always had a very different view…

I honestly don't expect to be able to cite any sources regarding Apple's decisions based on their level of transparency into their business. It seems perfectly compatible for Jobs to make those statements about privacy after weighing the cost for Apple to implement robust cloud infrastructure and services, and (potentially) deciding Apple would just not compete in that space. It's like Google finally conceding it won…

> (I honestly don't expect to be able to cite any sources regarding Apple's decisions based on their level of transparency into their business.

If that's the case, wouldn't it be better to not, you know, not speculate? Anyone can come up with a plausible sounding reason for x once there is some evidence of y, but it doesn't change the underlying fact that it is all a conjecture -- drawing conclusion(s) from incomplete information.

I pointed you to information refuting your central claim but since you are not privy to salient information, saying nothing is much better than expanding on your conjecture.

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

#320

Post by vbezhenar »

wand3r wrote: post #19

The Apple store seems good for small apps because the “tax” pays for discovery/marketing, distribution, billing & payment, lends credibility to the application, etc. This is especially true for single purchases. Recurring revenue is a much different proposition— even for small or first time apps. A player like netflix which handles it’s own marketing, payment and all other ancilliary services doesn’t need to anything…

I don't think that Netflix needs distribution. Netflix needs Apple's permission to run its software on its users devices. That what they are paying for. I doubt that many people would discover Netflix brand via AppStore browsing or that Netflix would struggle to serve .ipa file downloads.
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