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Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse unless they give 30% of creator earning

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Re: Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse unless they give 30% of creator earning

#151

Post by gamblor956 »

qeternity wrote: post #65
drivebycomment wrote: post #30

Per https://fanhouse.app/ , "Fanhouse is the place where creators can monetize their social media personalities by posting freely about their lives, like a finsta, close friends story, or private alt, while connecting and engaging with their top fans." So they built a platform, where they take some cut for themselves, while allowing other people to sell some digital contents on their platform. Apple built a platform,…

This. She is operating a platform for creators…that is literally what the AppStore is. She knew the rules when she started playing this game, and wants to appeal to emotions and hyperbole like this is an issue between “life and death”. Why does she get to keep 10%? It’s arbitrary. What if I want to start an app that helps creators manage their Fanhouse content? Should I ask Fanhouse for a cut of their fees so that I…

She gets 10% if creators choose to use her service as opposed to the dozens of other similar services, some of which charge more and some of which charge less. Hence, there is no antitrust issue.

OTOH, App developers don't get a choice for iOS. They must use Apple's payment system. They don't have a variety of payment processors to choose from. There is no market determining whether 30% is fair, and that is why antitrust regulations may apply.

What if I want to start an app that helps creators manage their Fanhouse content? Should I ask Fanhouse for a cut of their fees so that I can pass on 90% of gross earnings to creator?

That is how many B2B relationships actually work; you've described a referral arrangement in which one company refers a paying customer to another company and in exchange for their referral they get paid a percent of the revenue derived from it.

Re: Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse unless they give 30% of creator earning

#152

Post by echelon »

otterley wrote: post #139

I hate to be That Guy, but Apple doesn't care how much money you keep vs. how much money you pay others when you accept In-App Payments. If you paid 90% of your IaP revenues to the power company instead of to content creators, Apple has no way of knowing this. It just would mean that your business has no hope of being profitable. Fanhouse can still pass IaP revenues onto their customers ("creators"), but they're goin…

> This is a business problem disguised as a justice issue.

And we're discussing it because the monopoly known as Apple is continuing to gaslight and extort our industry.

Apple cannot be the single point of entry into a device that is responsible for 50% of American computing-related commerce. That might have worked if Apple was a small device used by 5% of consumers, but let's be real. Apple is the face of modern computing.

What the question really should be is, "why should Apple get to enjoy all commerce and freedoms linked to computing?" Through marketing and developing a good product, they've brought themselves into a market leader position. The choice to lock down their device may have made sense at 5%, but now it suffocates our entire industry under their gargantuan weight.

Apple isn't a device maker anymore. They're the fabric of computing itself. They have all the customers, they control all the software, and they make all the choices. You don't get ingress without going through them. They've been transformed into an analog of a common carrier, and the law now needs to treat them as such.

The only path forward is to force Apple to allow web-based downloads of apps, no longer allow them to force Apple payment rails, and to enable non-Safari based browsers to be installed.

Simple fix that will restore balance and health to the industry.

After this change happens, Apple will remain a 2 Trillion dollar company. This has negligible impact on their revenue - all it does is force them to work harder and gives the rest of us much-needed breathing room.

(Nevermind the right to repair and compute arguments.)

Re: Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse unless they give 30% of creator earning

#153

Post by bosswipe »

insert_coin wrote: post #110
ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #107

The antitrust case against Apple is so overdue it's embarrassing. What I don't get is people who defend it. Imagine Microsoft taking 30% of every purchase you make online because you used their OS to get there. Then would the defenders admit it's an obvious abuse of a monopoly? What makes it different for Apple?

Apple doesn't have a monopoly on any market.

It's interesting to think that if Apple had been more popular in the 90s then the DOJ wouldn't have been able to stop Microsoft and between them they could have strangled the nascent open web.

In this way a monopoly is actually better for consumers then a duopoly because it allows the government to step in.

Re: Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse unless they give 30% of creator earning

#154

Post by whywhywhywhy »

It's time to stop asking "Why does Apple think they deserve 30% of App Store revenue" and start asking "Why has Apple not demanded 30% of web app revenue yet?".

The justification of "We put all the hard work into building the hardware, the OS and the stack so deserve a cut" still stands if a website is opened using the Safari engine. If it doesn't stand then neither does the App Store cut.

Re: Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse unless they give 30% of creator earning

#155

Post by JamesSwift »

syntaxing wrote: post #2

Seriously curious, what percentage is “fair”? Or is the issue you can’t side load this app without going through the App Store?

The issue isn't really if 30% is "fair", its that the market has no way to find out if it is because apple have forced devs into their app ecosystem by deliberately keeping iOS browsers slightly worse than native apps (no push messaging or background processing). So there is no viable way for an alternate store, with an alternate fee structure, to run on iOS devices.

Re: Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse unless they give 30% of creator earning

#157

Post by Jcowell »

CubsFan1060 wrote: post #17
WWLink wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly misleading comment. Did you read the tweet thread? Apple is demanding 30% of all transactions sourced from an Apple device.

From the app. As someone else noticed, not having an app doesn't seem to have slowed down OnlyFans

I feel like Onlyfans being a porn platform is the reason behind its success. Porn and sex are very strong motivators if dare not I say innovators for Platforms and technologies. I’m still hanging on the belief that VR will be catapulted by Porn.

Re: Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse unless they give 30% of creator earning

#158

Post by slver »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #112
slver wrote: post #72

The only thing I don't understand is why these people push apps on the AppStore and then whine about the rules they've agreed to. Apple's 30% is infamous. It's not something obscure about iTunes use in nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

Because they have a monopoly over 50% of the population, and many businesses quite literally have to participate or they would cease to exist. Do you think it'd be legal for Microsoft to charge a 30% fee on every transaction you make on Windows?

Wait so "because [Apple] have a monopoly" (which isn't correct, but let's put that aside) they can push an app and then act surprised about Apple enforcing the ToS they agreed to?

Yeah that's not good enough.

Re: Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse unless they give 30% of creator earning

#159

Post by 3grdlurker »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #107

The antitrust case against Apple is so overdue it's embarrassing. What I don't get is people who defend it. Imagine Microsoft taking 30% of every purchase you make online because you used their OS to get there. Then would the defenders admit it's an obvious abuse of a monopoly? What makes it different for Apple?

I just like Apple’s App Store the way that it is. I’ve been through so many technology stacks and it I find their platform a joy to work with. The SDKs are coherent, very well-architected, extremely easy to use, and I have access to a user base that has very high adoption rates of the latest software versions so that I don’t have to worry so much about fragmentation. It’s the happiest I’ve been as a coder, so I feel that the 30% cut is a fair price to pay.

edit: So I answered the question and I’m getting downvoted to oblivion. Why do people even bother asking for other people’s perspectives.

Re: Apple is threatening to remove Fanhouse unless they give 30% of creator earning

#160

Post by Krasnol »

filoleg wrote: post #147
ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The comparison would be: imagine if Microsoft had a dominant software store tightly bound to Windows, and for any software applications sold through that store - for use on your Windows machine - Microsoft took a 30% cut of that sale. Well for that comparison to work, we'd also have to assume Microsoft disabled installing unsigned software as well. Which is what Apple does today. >Apple isn't taking 30% of every pur…

>Well for that comparison to work, we'd also have to assume Microsoft disabled installing unsigned software as well. Look no further than Xbox Store and how well you can run unsigned code on it. Sure, you can buy a physical game copy, but there are two issues with that: 1. Diskless versions of consoles are becoming more commonplace, thus removing that option. 2. If you buy retail, it is still a cut to Microsoft, just…

> And before someone says "well, this is a gaming console, not a phone/computing device", I will say that it has apps (youtube/streaming services/etc.), it has a web browser, and plenty other functionality not related to games.

How much is the cut for those functionalities for MS?

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