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Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app

macrumors.com

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Re: Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app

#581

Post by dr-detroit »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #552
wlesieutre wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I wouldn't be that shocked if Apple tried demanding a 30% royalty on bank deposits and bills paid using iPhone apps. They've decided the future of their company depends on being huge assholes about it.

I would be surprised by that because iPhone users would notice that. I think the App Store model relies on their fee being invisible to consumers, and the increased price you’re paying not being linked to them. AFAIK apps aren’t allowed to explain that they charge more if you subscribe on iPhone to users either, or why they do so.

[dead]

Re: Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app

#583

Post by [deleted] »

Wazako wrote: post #291
willtemperley wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

What is absurd is finding yourself paying 30% on every digital item purchased on a smartphone app. It would never even occur to us that Microsoft takes a 30% margin on Steam, yet that is what happens on webtoon apps.

[deleted]

Re: Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app

#584

Post by [deleted] »

dimitrios1 wrote: post #563
nabla9 wrote: post #327

Apple’s App Store profits on commissions from digital sales Revenue $32 B Operating Costs $7 B [1] Estimated Profit $25 B Operating Margin ~78% [1] R&D, security, hosting, human review, and including building and maintaining developer tools Xcode, APIs, and SDKs. Apple could take just 7% cut and still make 20% profits. Fun Fact: During the Epic trial, it was revealed that Apple's profit margins on the App Store were…

> force regulators to step in > force > regulators That's my whole problem, personally. What we need much, much less of in this world is government force, especially during these trying times of government force and outreach (something I expected my more left side of the isle colleagues to have finally realized by now). COIVD really was a test of how much governmental draconianism we would take, and we failed spectac…

[deleted]

Re: Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app

#586

Post by WA »

Izkata wrote: post #545
WA wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I heard this before, but no, it is mostly a processing fee. The reality is: - Developers helped to make Apple the platform it is today. - Apple had their 30% fee when the App Store was MUCH smaller. It's not like that fee came only after they had the audience. - Apple will do zero marketing for you unless you are already successful. - Apple doesn't earn money with the most popular free apps, but still hosts them…

Just as an aside, everything here is true of Android as well, and I think the cut was higher (or there were more intermediaries taking a bit as well): I priced an app $1.47 in 2010 so I'd get about $1 on every purchase.

True, the Google cut was also 30%, but they didn't make such a fuss about "no links to website" and stuff like that. They didn't even have a review process for a long time.

Re: Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app

#587

Post by ulrikrasmussen »

stouset wrote: post #510
uyzstvqs wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the monopoly over distribution channels. Regulation needs to force devices to allow A) downloading and using packages & executables from the internet, and B) any app to download and install other apps. Regulating the fees for one central app store is no solution.

> downloading and using packages & executables from the internet Oh boy, now my mom can get the full experience of having malware on her phone too!

With freedom also comes responsibility, and some innocent people will inevitably shoot themselves in the foot. This is not a strong enough argument for putting everybody else in a cage and letting a duopoly take over virtually all of the distribution of consumer software.

Re: Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app

#588

Post by d--b »

megamix wrote: post #570

Can someone explain how much of value the iOS app is to users? I'm a noob at Patreon, aren't creators receiving their support through the website's payment gateway already? I'm not really against a company setting the rules if it's their platform, if the market cannot accept it then alternatives (competitors) will eventually find new ways.

Probably the only added value is direct notifications of new content.

Patreon is probably going to shut down the payment feature from the app and orient people to the website. That's what I'd do... And bad mouth Apple.

Given Patreon's clients is influencers, this is a fairly bad PR move by Apple, for probably zero return...

Re: Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app

#589

Post by Atreiden »

dimitrios1 wrote: post #563
nabla9 wrote: post #327

Apple’s App Store profits on commissions from digital sales Revenue $32 B Operating Costs $7 B [1] Estimated Profit $25 B Operating Margin ~78% [1] R&D, security, hosting, human review, and including building and maintaining developer tools Xcode, APIs, and SDKs. Apple could take just 7% cut and still make 20% profits. Fun Fact: During the Epic trial, it was revealed that Apple's profit margins on the App Store were…

> force regulators to step in > force > regulators That's my whole problem, personally. What we need much, much less of in this world is government force, especially during these trying times of government force and outreach (something I expected my more left side of the isle colleagues to have finally realized by now). COIVD really was a test of how much governmental draconianism we would take, and we failed spectac…

We don't need "more" government, we need the government to do its job. We need the regulators who have been legally appointed to oversee these areas to actually respond to these behaviors. Regulatory capture is the issue, but the solution isn't less government. It's getting corporate money and lobbying out of the government (Citizens United is to blame for most of our woes), increase the enforcement of anti-corruption laws, and get antitrust back on the table.

I want big corporations to be scared. I want them to fear for their own survival, and to tread lightly lest the sword of damocles fall upon them.

Re: Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app

#590

Post by Spoom »

silvestrov wrote: post #527
rob74 wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that in the case of Patreon, any fee for Apple is unjustified. Apple can justify their fee on app purchases/subscriptions in the app store, but Patreon is not an app subscription, the money goes mostly from the patrons to the people they support. Ok, Patreon takes a cut to cover their operating costs, and also make a profit (not sure how profitable they are currently), but I really can't see how Apple, who do…

You could make the argument that Patreon isn't much more than a banking app. It just focuses on the receiver of the money than the sender. I think Apple is slowly killing apps with this policy. Everybody will slowly move to "web only" as 30% would kill their ability to compete with anybody else. This will likely be much stronger in countries where iPhones do not have the same market share as in the US.

> Everybody will slowly move to "web only" as 30% would kill their ability to compete with anybody else.

Frankly, yes, please. I mean, I'm biased as my whole career is in web app development, but there are so many things these days that do not need a whole native app. They're just communicating with a server backend somewhere, using none of the unique native functionality of the phone (much of which is available in browser APIs these days anyway). I can block ads in a web app much more easily. It's much harder to do customer-hostile things like block screenshots in a web app.

Native apps definitely have a place, but I think they're very overused, mostly for reasons that benefit the business at the expense of the customer.

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