Apple’s App Store and Other Digital Marketplaces [PDF]
Apple sponsored a study to compare commission rates charged by popular digital marketplaces (which includes the App Store, but also Uber, Airbnb, Etsy, Roku, Steam, and so on).
As evidence of the second point, yesterday saw some interesting whiplash on Hacker News: two of the day’s most popular comment threads were an [incorrect] report that Apple keeps their 30% cut even after a refund, and then the follow-up correction that no, they actually don’t do that anymore.
Apple Will Let Content Apps Like Netflix, Spotify Link to Their Websites to Sign Up Users
This has been hanging in the air ever since Apple's settlement with the Japan Fair Trade Commission last fall.
It sounds big on the surface, but read the details and you'll see Apple is basically playing the 'take my toys and go home' card. Per the documentation page, some of the restrictions required for an app to use this new option:
Also, Apple is requiring apps to show a scary-looking fullscreen warning to users before sending them to the website destination — you can see the mockup on this page, about half-way down.
Anti-monopoly verdicts coming fast, years too late
A federal court ruled Google’s AdX (Exchange) and DFP (SSP) created a monopoly and will seek to require selling off their third party advertising Network business. This ruling might have been a big deal 20 years ago when users spent most of their time on the open web and Google made 46% of their ad revenue came through the third party Network (source paywall) but as online usage has moved to logged-in “Content Fortresses”, the Network business has degraded in performance (and margin). Today Google makes closer to 10% from this business. Google will still appeal, but it’s probably a moot point.
This comes at the same time the DoJ is trying to force Google to sell off Chrome four years after they succeeded in a court claim Google has a search monopoly.
Chasing another bold verdict in the very same courtroom — also years too late — the Federal Trade Commission is (FTC) revisiting its 2019 revisitation of its 2012 approval of Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram. Even though Zuck has offered the court a cool billion to settle, the case is projected to fail, in the words of Ben Thompson: “The government is making a case from the late 2010s, using evidence from the early 2010s, that Meta is a monopoly in the 2020s, and thus should have to divest acquisitions made over a decade ago.”
Amazon and Apple aren't immune to the punitive scrutiny.
That said the FTC is making some helpful rulings that are right on time: such as forcing Airbnb to display full prices (looking at you $250 cleaning fee) and dinging Uber for falsely claiming “savings of $25 a month” for subscriptions to Uber One, then telling users to contact customer service to cancel, but giving them no way to do so.
Apple will allow Dutch dating apps to use other payment options within existing apps
In related news, Apple finally blinked in its ongoing dispute with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets.
Brief recap:
The newest development: now Apple announced its plans no longer include requiring a completely separate app just for the Netherlands. Still unchanged: a required pre-payment warning modal (very similar to the example above), and a 27% commission rate with mandatory audit rights to Apple.
The ACM hasn't indicated yet whether it considers this satisfactory…so the drama continues for at least a little while longer.
