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> If I were in a position where Apple is forcing me to pay a 30% tax, I would literally add "30% Apple Tax" to the check out screen on top of the regular fees t
by YetAnotherNick 6y ago
> If I were in a position where Apple is forcing me to pay a 30% tax, I would literally add "30% Apple Tax" to the check out screen on top of the regular fees to make consumers aware
If you don't know that, it is not allowed to sell for more in iOS than in your site, and the app will get banned for attempting that, forget about displaying 30% apple tax to the users explicitly.
Edit: Heard from somewhere, likely not fully correct.
- strombofulous 6y agoTwitch charges $5.99 for a subscription to a streamer in their app but $5 on their website. Are they breaking this rule too? How are they getting away with it?
- programmarchy 6y agoWell, Apple doesn't actually allow you to sell an app for $5. You can only choose $4.99 or $5.99.
- saagarjha 6y agoI'm sure they're really hurting for that cent, you think?
- programmarchy 6y agoNot at all. Just explaining why there’d be a price difference. Apple has a good reason for not allowing weird prices like $3.61 but also excludes prices like $5. They also used to require that subscriptions outside the App Store match In-App Purchase prices, but dropped that requirement. Pricing $5.99 in-app and $5 outside is a good strategy. It’s a nudge to get users to buy outside the app and save 15%, but if not they’re effectively splitting the Apple tax.
- hombre_fatal 6y agoYour second paragraph explains why you think there would be a price difference. That you can only choose 4.99 or 5.99 seems unrelated to your actual theory, and it doesn't make sense on its own.
- bdcravens 6y agoAre the subscriptions portable between the web and mobile apps? Or only valid one place or the other?
- strombofulous 6y agoIt's account-based, a sub on one transfers transparently.
- tenryuu 6y agokind of? They have a special category for mobile subscriptions, and the sub system on mobile uses a token system. So while they all do the same thing, they are actually very diverse in how they are operated. A sub on a phone still gives you the benefits on any platform though, but it will continue to use the payment gateway for the life of the subscription
- dathinab 6y agoIt's not visible for the iOS user that they pay more without explicitly looking it up. And the difference is small. Just add a transparent reporting about how your prices came to be and they will not let you do so.
- dgellow 6y agoUnless you’re YouTube
- djxfade 6y agoMedia streaming services "only" pay a 15% fee on IAP
- briandear 6y agoHow much are credit card fees? Chargebacks? Fraud? Server costs to host your app and updates? The shopping cart/private infrastructure? You actually get some value from those percentages, but few people actually run the numbers.
- tick_tock_tick 6y ago~3% or less.
- zaroth 6y ago~3% plus some fixed transaction fee. So for low dollar amount charges, like a $1.00 app purchase, the transaction fee can be > 30% (e.g. 2.9% + $0.30 on Stripe).
- briandear 6y agoSo selling an App for a dollar using stripe, you get $0.67. With the App Store, you get $0.70. And for that stripe fee you still have to have your own store, download infrastructure, and website to sell it on. A website that you also have to build, maintain, and market. And you have to deal with chargebacks and customer support during the buying process.
- romanoderoma 6y agoRight, but that stops there At 1.2$ you already earn more then the Apple Store. $ 1.0 Apple: 0.7 Stripe: 0.671 $ 1.1 Apple: 0.77 Stripe: 0.7681 $ 1.2 Apple: 0.84 Stripe: 0.8652 So just make it 1.49 and you are good (you'll earn a full 10% more than with Apple) Anyway even at 0.99 price tag (I think Apple doesn't allow 1$) it only 4.5% less, on a million unit sold the difference would be about 31,710 dollars (693,000 VS 661,290).
- stordoff 6y agoMicrosoft seem to get away with it: Forza Street on iOS - 125 Gold: £4.99, 255 Gold: £9.99 Forza Street on Windows 10 - 125 Gold: £3.99, 255 Gold: £7.99 Both connect to the same account.
- sjs382 6y agoI think YetAnotherNick means the actual words "30% Apple Tax" on the screen.
- georgespencer 6y agoI don't see how that's possible from his comment: > If you don't know that, it is not allowed to sell for more in iOS than in your site, and the app will get banned for attempting that He seems to believe that Apple explicitly bans apps from charging more for iOS subscriptions / IAPs than they do elsewhere (e.g. purchasing the subscription on their website), but I can find no evidence to support this, and a lot of evidence to the contrary.
- dathinab 6y agoThey do so implicit, then moment is visible to the user that they can buy thinking cheaper elsewhere Apple will cause trouble. I.e. you are not allowed to be transparent with pricing.
- georgespencer 6y agoThis is literally not true: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24239143 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24239143
- dathinab 6y agoNo it is, you are allowed to sell for more but you are not allowed to be transparent about it.
- georgespencer 6y ago> If you don't know that, it is not allowed to sell for more in iOS than in your site, and the app will get banned for attempting that I don't think this is true, although you've said it so emphatically that a lot of people are going to believe it without any supporting evidence! Can you help us out with some? App store guidelines: Nothing about the need for uniform app pricing across platforms.[1] App price: Examples of apps with higher prices on iOS than elsewhere.[2] Subscription: Spotify and others charged more to offset Apple's 30% cut ($12.99 instead of $9.99 to subscribe in-app) for years.[3] IAP: Epic charged more for IAPs on iOS than elsewhere.[4] [1] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#payments https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#pay... [2] https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8031795 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8031795 [3] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spotify-apple-app-store-164634805.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/spotify-apple-app-store-16463... [4] https://www.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR/comments/85d3uc/the_app_charges_more_for_vbucks_than_pc_for_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR/comments/85d3uc/the_app_...
- gsich 6y agoregarding 1: >You must not directly or indirectly target iOS users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase, and your general communications about other purchasing methods must not discourage use of in-app purchase. Which essentially can counteract the uniformity, depending on how insane the reviewer is. Paying more for IAP is obviously discouraging.
- dwaite 6y agoMore that you should not communicate that your out-of-app purchasing is cheaper, either in-app or out-of-app.
- georgespencer 6y agoThis has nothing to do with a company's ability to price differently on other platforms or their website, and there is significant evidence that shows apps allowed onto the app store with more expensive purchase price, subscription price, and IAP price.
- saagarjha 6y agoI do not believe this is a requirement. You just may not present any other payment option in app.
- georgespencer 6y agoOP stated it with total conviction and now appears to have downvoted my reply citing evidence to the contrary. Some folks take their anti-Apple agenda pretty personally! Nothing in the guidelines about this at all: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#payments https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#pay...
- crondung 6y agoIt's not just the op downvoting. It's about a quarter of the users. They have zero interest in correct information, and your counter-evidence will soon get and and removed. This site, for years now, has been ruled by people with no knowledge, who are not interested in obtaining it. Then dong, sorry, dang, has a questionaire once in a while asking what people want, a few idiots reply 'you are doing great,' and he pats himself on the back, while doing the job if a 14yo reddit mod incel all day -making himself feel in control of his crappy life by feeling powerful here, leaving junk while deleting useful information.
- ffpip 6y agoFalse. You are just not allowed to say it is cheaper on the website.
- briandear 6y agoI can support that. Along with listing a line item for every tax charged and what those taxes are used for. Perhaps a line item of credit card fees (for non App Store purchases.” Also a line item for salaries of your developers, a line item for the rent charged wherever you are working from. And perhaps a line item for exactly how much the servers and customer support costs. What’s the markup of a product sold in a brick and mortar shop? It’s a whole lot more than 30%.
- cwhiz 6y agoThis is not correct. You can charge whatever you like. You just aren’t allowed to have line items like “Apple tax” or words blaming Apple for the price.
- Bombthecat 6y agoKodi call it appstore tax or so? Since Google did the same.