Facebook says Apple's 30% App Store fee hurts small businesses during COVID-19

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 44
    The idea of double-dealing crooks like Facebook calling out ANYONE for deceptive processes would be comical if it weren't utterly insane! I understood what a cesspool Facebook was shortly after they came on the scene. I saw my formerly highly productive friends spending hours on the platform…… pretty much saying and doing uncharacteristically useless reasons. After less than 3 months, I deleted my account and have never looked back. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 22 of 44
    Facebook should better be concerned about their own 90% privacy fee they impose.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 23 of 44
    spice-boyspice-boy Posts: 1,450member
    Screw ‘em. They can always lower or raise what they choose to charge customers. Apple will still get 30% of that.
    you just described what a monopoly does perfectly. 
    CheeseFreeze
  • Reply 24 of 44
    spice-boyspice-boy Posts: 1,450member

    Yup, it's time for the all the other scum-bag, dick wad CEO's to start jumping on the bandwagon of Apple is EVIL, after all, they need to support their brother's in arms, or maybe wallets...

    BTW, ArsTechnica just CRUSHED Epic in this article:

    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/08/as-epic-attacks-apple-and-google-it-ignores-the-same-problems-on-consoles/

    Yeah, they totally have issue with paying the fees, uh huh...
    You have zero idea to what a small independent business has to deal with. Corporations as Apple have pretty much a free pass to decide the rules, rates and policies and if you are using their services to sell your product you can do nothing but click "agree" and put up with it. Apple is so powerful that vendors are trapped and have to pay whatever precentage Apple wants. App developers are not a major movie studio with some bargaining power, a bunch of lawyers and a PR team. Keep defending Apple as it expands its monopoly power and see what eventually happens to the tech industry.
    CheeseFreeze
  • Reply 25 of 44
    spice-boyspice-boy Posts: 1,450member

    Lots of multi-billion dollar, profit-at-any-cost companies talking about the 30% cut as if they’re looking out for small companies. What a pile of b/s.

    Small businesses and not-for-profits are enabled by the App Store, not hindered by it. 
    Again another clueless comment from someone who wants to believe Apple is not beyond destroying small companies in it's goal to satisfy share holders. 
    CheeseFreeze
  • Reply 26 of 44
    spice-boyspice-boy Posts: 1,450member
    From the NYT, 

    Twelve years ago, Apple introduced the App Store, a peculiar online marketplace for the year-old iPhone. It had 500 offerings. Apple told app makers it would take a 30 percent cut of their sales, and few complained.

    Today, the App Store is one of the world’s largest centers of commerce, facilitating half a trillion dollars in sales last year alone. And Apple still takes 30 percent of many apps’ sales.

    That commission has proved hugely consequential for Apple. It has been the primary driver of growth in recent years for a company that has nearly $275 billion in annual sales. And it has created some of Apple’s biggest headaches, drawing antitrust scrutinyfury from app makers and lawsuits from consumers and partners.

    The headaches intensified this week when Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, arguably the world’s most popular video game, sued both Apple and Google, accusing the companies of breaking antitrust laws by forcing app makers to pay their 30 percent fees. The lawsuits followed Apple and Google’s removal of Fortnite from their app stores because Epic encouraged users to pay it directly, rather than through Apple or Google, to avoid their fees.


    CheeseFreeze
  • Reply 27 of 44
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    Will Facebook be lowering their ad rates for small companies that are hurt by the crisis?
    svanstromStrangeDayswatto_cobra
  • Reply 28 of 44
    Yup, it's time for the all the other scum-bag, dick wad CEO's to start jumping on the bandwagon of Apple is EVIL, after all, they need to support their brother's in arms, or maybe wallets...

    BTW, ArsTechnica just CRUSHED Epic in this article:

    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/08/as-epic-attacks-apple-and-google-it-ignores-the-same-problems-on-consoles/

    Yeah, they totally have issue with paying the fees, uh huh...
    The breakdown of Epic's Fortnite customers by platform provided in that Ars article is an eye-opener: 71% play on consoles, 17% on desktop/laptop, and 12% on mobile (so the share playing through an App Store download would be even smaller than that). Apple doesn't even remotely dominate the market for Epic's own game, and the companies that do dominate practice a very similar business model for software control as the App Store. 
    edited August 2020 svanstromStrangeDayswatto_cobraDetnator
  • Reply 29 of 44
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Facebook is a cesspool of lies and conspiracy theories. No one should trust Facebook. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 30 of 44
    Grab an intel while you can 
  • Reply 31 of 44
    JFC_PAJFC_PA Posts: 932member
    Apple has only a 13.3% of the global market share of the phone market. So there’s that. 
    StrangeDayswatto_cobra
  • Reply 32 of 44
    Nikon8Nikon8 Posts: 47member
    Perhaps Facebook should stop tracking and profiling for profit by 30% as well.  #deleteFaceBook. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 33 of 44
    Will Facebook be lowering their ad rates for small companies that are hurt by the crisis?
    Yes by 20% and also setup a small business grant program to donate to businesses.

    Look, Facebook are definitely not a model company when it comes to their policies towards users and policies around privacy but this whataboutism doesn't really help. 

    The point here is that these are person to small business transactions for things like education classes. Facebook, for once, want to do something right and let businesses keep 100% of the money people choose to spend with these small businesses. 

    I don't think Apple should be taking any money from transactions like this. It's not about 'free rent' on the appstore or anything like that. It's more akin to Apple taking 30% if you pay your bills using a banking app on your iPhone or 30% apple tax if you do your shopping through a supermarket or amazon app on iPhone. I assume you'd be good with Apple taking those sort of fees as well?

    edited August 2020 gatorguy
  • Reply 34 of 44
    spice-boy said:

    Lots of multi-billion dollar, profit-at-any-cost companies talking about the 30% cut as if they’re looking out for small companies. What a pile of b/s.

    Small businesses and not-for-profits are enabled by the App Store, not hindered by it. 
    Again another clueless comment from someone who wants to believe Apple is not beyond destroying small companies in it's goal to satisfy share holders. 
    You have this thing of calling out others as being clueless, yet you provide nothing of value, or any evidence that the 30% is wrong or unneeded. Apple did provide evidence that the 30% is within normal practices. Business must make a profit above their expenses. Apple must make their shareholders happy. There was all this doom and gloom that Apple was just an iPhone company and they needed to broaden their revenue. Apple has broadened their revenue. Provide some evidence that the 30% is bad and too high other than people thinking so. Do you own your own business? Apple is a global company and has to keep all those laws and taxes straight. They have to pay living wages for programmers, designers, lawyers, public relations, chip designers, architects, store staff, maintenance of buildings, custodial, and whatever else people they need. Then they have to pay suppliers, manufacturers, electricity, water, sewer, bandwidth and whatever else. Oh yeah they have to pay for the employee buses. Don’t forget about those data centers. 

    Just because a commenter comments about one thing related to an article, does not mean they are clueless or are ignorant of or ignored the rest of Apple. 
    y2anwatto_cobraDetnator
  • Reply 35 of 44
    mattinozmattinoz Posts: 2,299member
    Wait so Facebook launched a product full well knowing they needed to get better deals out of third party suppliers to make it profitable and now trying to get public support for that.

    doesnt sound like a moral or ethical way to do business.
    svanstromwatto_cobra
  • Reply 36 of 44
    mike1 said:
    Yup, it's time for the all the other scum-bag, dick wad CEO's to start jumping on the bandwagon of Apple is EVIL, after all, they need to support their brother's in arms, or maybe wallets...

    BTW, ArsTechnica just CRUSHED Epic in this article:

    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/08/as-epic-attacks-apple-and-google-it-ignores-the-same-problems-on-consoles/

    Yeah, they totally have issue with paying the fees, uh huh...

    It was an excellent piece. Thanks for the link.
    Apple just happens to be under investigation and they happen to represent the ‘grandfathers’ of the App Store model as we know it today.
    They are attacking Apple because it’s a strategic move. In case they beat Apple, most - if not all the other platforms that have a monopoly will have a much weaker position, and will be sued accordingly.
    We all know Apple isn’t the only one, but it’s the most obvious one to attack.
  • Reply 37 of 44
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    spice-boy said:

    Yup, it's time for the all the other scum-bag, dick wad CEO's to start jumping on the bandwagon of Apple is EVIL, after all, they need to support their brother's in arms, or maybe wallets...

    BTW, ArsTechnica just CRUSHED Epic in this article:

    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/08/as-epic-attacks-apple-and-google-it-ignores-the-same-problems-on-consoles/

    Yeah, they totally have issue with paying the fees, uh huh...
    You have zero idea to what a small independent business has to deal with. Corporations as Apple have pretty much a free pass to decide the rules, rates and policies and if you are using their services to sell your product you can do nothing but click "agree" and put up with it. Apple is so powerful that vendors are trapped and have to pay whatever precentage Apple wants. App developers are not a major movie studio with some bargaining power, a bunch of lawyers and a PR team. Keep defending Apple as it expands its monopoly power and see what eventually happens to the tech industry.
    What market does Apple have a monopoly of? Not mobile, plenty of other choices. And not their own platform, because you can’t have a “monopoly” of yourself, otherwise McDonalds would have a monopoly on their own stores for not allowing the Big Mac in. Or Target for what it allows on its shelves,  Nintendo on what games it allows in, etc. 

    There is no Apple monopoly. 
    edited August 2020 svanstromwatto_cobraDetnator
  • Reply 38 of 44
    If Zuck’s FB really want to know what’s hurting everybody, including small business owners, during the global pandemic, that will be the most popular social media platform doing sh*t to curb the spread of misinformation. That is really killing people!

    No apps from Facebook on my devices, for more years than I care to remember now. Couldn’t be happier with the decision!
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 39 of 44
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,654member
    sflocal said:
    Facebook should be judging the entire retail industry then.  Last time I checked, Safeway and Costco also get a cut of sales of what vendors sell in their stores.

    Scumbags.
    There's more to it than that.   What all these developers don't realize (or choose to ignore) is that back in the days of physical software, if you sold to a big distributor like Ingram Micro-D, you had to give them around a 52% discount and sometimes as much as a 60% discount.    Apple's 30% take is a BARGAIN.    But what Apple might consider doing is for in-app sales, taking a lower cut on higher sales levels.    
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 40 of 44
    Yup, it's time for the all the other scum-bag, dick wad CEO's to start jumping on the bandwagon of Apple is EVIL, after all, they need to support their brother's in arms, or maybe wallets...

    BTW, ArsTechnica just CRUSHED Epic in this article:

    https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/08/as-epic-attacks-apple-and-google-it-ignores-the-same-problems-on-consoles/

    Yeah, they totally have issue with paying the fees, uh huh...
    The breakdown of Epic's Fortnite customers by platform provided in that Ars article is an eye-opener: 71% play on consoles, 17% on desktop/laptop, and 12% on mobile (so the share playing through an App Store download would be even smaller than that). Apple doesn't even remotely dominate the market for Epic's own game, and the companies that do dominate practice a very similar business model for software control as the App Store. 
    It’s not about the 12% for mobile. As they said, it’s the principle they are having issues with. Epic and other companies are standing up against Apple for a bigger play here.
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