9 ms·

Here is the rent Amazon charges for using their infrastructure to sell with (i.e. selling your stuff on their website). http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/

by YooLi 16y ago

Here is the rent Amazon charges for using their infrastructure to sell with (i.e. selling your stuff on their website). http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161240 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1... Selling a $9.99 book would end up with Amazon taking 28.5% or 38.5% (the lower percentage only if you enroll in the Pro Merchant subscription program for $39.99/month) of the price.

YooLi 16y ago
Ebay takes $2.00 minimum (~ 20%) from selling a $9.99 book plus you have to pay for payment processing yourself. http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html Payment processing with PayPal is another 6% (2.9% + $0.30) of the $9.99 price (and that's just for domestic payments; international is more). https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving-fees-outside https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving... So chalk it up as 26% minimum to sell your eBook through eBay.
garry 16y ago
Wow good point. Marketplaces at scale become infrastructure !
- JoeAltmaier 16y ago
  Apple's store is not really a "marketplace" - at least not a free market. There's no competition allowed, in a market that's everywhere else free and open. And as for Infrastructure - what does Apple own except the web site? They don't own the iPhone - I bought mine for cash, I own it. They don't own the network - ATT and Verizon own that, and I contract to them. They don't own the apps - they just try to. That leaves them in the position of market predator - trying to make a buck by warping the market in their favor, throwing up roadblocks to anyone using their own hardware on their rented network for anything that Apple can't scam a buck from.
  - YooLi 16y ago
    And how did those apps get on your phone? That's the infrastructure part. Those apps can be sold in 100+ countries around the world with payments processed and on a platform that Apple is selling with catchy commercials and by ensuring a certain level of quality. That's the infrastructure and value Apple is adding with the app store. Do you seriously think there would be 350,000 apps for the iPhone if each developer had to set up distribution and payment handling for 100+ countries around the world, and be able to do it for small payment amounts ($0.99)?
    - JoeAltmaier 16y ago
      Yeah, but people on this site are pretty familiar with putting up a web sales site, and aren't going to be very impressed by that - certainly not to the point of paying their entire margin to Apple for it. Yes its a popular site - hey! could that be because its the only site?
markszcz 16y ago
Google's market will also be takeing about 30% of in app purchases.
JoeAltmaier 16y ago
The argument is off the mark; Apple artificially restricts the iPhone app market, SOLELY so they can skim money from all the apps. Sell your stuff on Amazon, your own store, whatever; Amazon can compete in that free market, and if its worth it to you, pay their premium. Apple monopolistically freezes out any possibility of competition; skims off of apps that have nowhere else to go. Then they want to set your prices outside of their store too!
- YooLi 16y ago
  Perhaps you should actually read the Amazon terms first: "By our General Pricing rule, you must always ensure that the item price and total price of an item you list on Amazon.com are at or below the item price and total price at which you offer and/or sell the item via any other online sales channel."
  - JoeAltmaier 16y ago
    So, you choose to NOT sell on Amazon. Try that with your iPhone app.
    - herval 16y ago
      You can sell on Cydia...
    - YooLi 16y ago
      That's easy, you don't develop an app to sell on iPhones.
    - muhfuhkuh 16y ago
      "Hey kids, go to html5-instead-of-native-app.com, subscribe to our service, and have fun or something!" Problem. Solved.
    - superuser2 16y ago
      Sell to people who jailbreak. Take advantage of Cydia. You just won't be able to reach people as easily (just like if you don't like Amazon's terms you make people jump through hoops to put your books on a Kindle).

by YooLi 16y ago

YooLi 16y ago

Ebay takes $2.00 minimum (~ 20%) from selling a $9.99 book plus you have to pay for payment processing yourself. http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html Payment processing with PayPal is another 6% (2.9% + $0.30) of the $9.99 price (and that's just for domestic payments; international is more). https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving-fees-outside https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving... So chalk it up as 26% minimum to sell your eBook through eBay.

garry 16y ago

Wow good point. Marketplaces at scale become infrastructure !

JoeAltmaier 16y ago
Apple's store is not really a "marketplace" - at least not a free market. There's no competition allowed, in a market that's everywhere else free and open. And as for Infrastructure - what does Apple own except the web site? They don't own the iPhone - I bought mine for cash, I own it. They don't own the network - ATT and Verizon own that, and I contract to them. They don't own the apps - they just try to. That leaves them in the position of market predator - trying to make a buck by warping the market in their favor, throwing up roadblocks to anyone using their own hardware on their rented network for anything that Apple can't scam a buck from.
- YooLi 16y ago
  And how did those apps get on your phone? That's the infrastructure part. Those apps can be sold in 100+ countries around the world with payments processed and on a platform that Apple is selling with catchy commercials and by ensuring a certain level of quality. That's the infrastructure and value Apple is adding with the app store. Do you seriously think there would be 350,000 apps for the iPhone if each developer had to set up distribution and payment handling for 100+ countries around the world, and be able to do it for small payment amounts ($0.99)?
  - JoeAltmaier 16y ago
    Yeah, but people on this site are pretty familiar with putting up a web sales site, and aren't going to be very impressed by that - certainly not to the point of paying their entire margin to Apple for it. Yes its a popular site - hey! could that be because its the only site?

markszcz 16y ago

Google's market will also be takeing about 30% of in app purchases.

JoeAltmaier 16y ago

The argument is off the mark; Apple artificially restricts the iPhone app market, SOLELY so they can skim money from all the apps. Sell your stuff on Amazon, your own store, whatever; Amazon can compete in that free market, and if its worth it to you, pay their premium. Apple monopolistically freezes out any possibility of competition; skims off of apps that have nowhere else to go. Then they want to set your prices outside of their store too!

YooLi 16y ago
Perhaps you should actually read the Amazon terms first: "By our General Pricing rule, you must always ensure that the item price and total price of an item you list on Amazon.com are at or below the item price and total price at which you offer and/or sell the item via any other online sales channel."
- JoeAltmaier 16y ago
  So, you choose to NOT sell on Amazon. Try that with your iPhone app.
  - herval 16y ago
    You can sell on Cydia...
  - YooLi 16y ago
    That's easy, you don't develop an app to sell on iPhones.
  - muhfuhkuh 16y ago
    "Hey kids, go to html5-instead-of-native-app.com, subscribe to our service, and have fun or something!" Problem. Solved.
  - superuser2 16y ago
    Sell to people who jailbreak. Take advantage of Cydia. You just won't be able to reach people as easily (just like if you don't like Amazon's terms you make people jump through hoops to put your books on a Kindle).