3 ms·

This is not a valid comparison, there is no referral or commission happening here. Compare it more to sales tax, which is a much closer comparison because it i

by sbarre 6y ago

This is not a valid comparison, there is no referral or commission happening here. Compare it more to sales tax, which is a much closer comparison because it is required as part of the transaction in a monopoly ecosystem (much like a sales tax is in a country). If a vendor adds tax to a price, and then charges the customer, and the customer gets a refund, the customer get the sales tax back, but the vendor then doesn't have to remit that tax to the government (and if they've already remitted it, they can apply for a credit).

Spivak 6y ago
I mean would it feel better if you got paid $10 but then Apple immediately billed you $3 for marketing and sales services? Because that’s basically Apple’s whole thing. If you want you can just ignore their existence. You can run a very successful business on the web, Android, Windows. But getting your app on iOS and in front of their customer base is really valuable. Better than any billboard or FB ad. They know that customer acquisition is hugely expensive and that being able to sell on their platform will make you more money than not and so they charge like it. The difference between having Spotify on iOS that can’t mention that premium exists (because that would be using iOS as a marketing vector which Apple charges for) and therefore has to do their own customer acquisition, and being able to convert customers in-app makes a big difference.
- sbarre 6y ago
  That's just changing the subject. We were talking about selling in the iOS ecosystem, and the mechanics of that process. No one said there weren't other options, and "take your ball and go home" is obviously always an option but that's not what was being discussed. (Note that it turns out that Apple does not keep their 30% when it refunds an app, so the original point wasn't valid).

3 ms·

This is not a valid comparison, there is no referral or commission happening here. Compare it more to sales tax, which is a much closer comparison because it i

by sbarre 6y ago

Spivak 6y ago
I mean would it feel better if you got paid $10 but then Apple immediately billed you $3 for marketing and sales services? Because that’s basically Apple’s whole thing. If you want you can just ignore their existence. You can run a very successful business on the web, Android, Windows. But getting your app on iOS and in front of their customer base is really valuable. Better than any billboard or FB ad. They know that customer acquisition is hugely expensive and that being able to sell on their platform will make you more money than not and so they charge like it. The difference between having Spotify on iOS that can’t mention that premium exists (because that would be using iOS as a marketing vector which Apple charges for) and therefore has to do their own customer acquisition, and being able to convert customers in-app makes a big difference.
- sbarre 6y ago
  That's just changing the subject. We were talking about selling in the iOS ecosystem, and the mechanics of that process. No one said there weren't other options, and "take your ball and go home" is obviously always an option but that's not what was being discussed. (Note that it turns out that Apple does not keep their 30% when it refunds an app, so the original point wasn't valid).