Kayvon Beykpour, Chief Product Officer at Twitter, gave an interview to The Verge in which defended (at least in some way) in the 30% commission that Apple takes with all in-app purchases on the App Store. A ray of light towards Cupertino at a time when the company is besieged by legal battles from Spotify, Epic Games, Facebook and the European Union.
Currently, Twitter does not have to pay any of these fees to Apple, as it does not offer any services that users pay for. However, the social network is immersed in a series of acquisitions and launches that will do so: Revue newsletters, Spaces, Super Follow … These are functions that will eventually be sold through the iOS app and that part of the profits will therefore end up in Apple’s coffers.
“If $ 10 stays at $ 7, it’s $ 7 more.”
Beykpour mentioned Super Follows as one of those paid services that will be affected by this 30% commission:
“We are building this new layer of services where there was nothing before. Even if a $ 10 payout remains at $ 7 for the 30% commission, it will still be $ 7 more than before. So make no mistake, I love that that $ 7 was worth $ 9, but in the end, it’s not something that we have any direct influence on any platform. For us, this is not something we want to focus on right now “
In addition, the executive wished to highlight the benefits obtained in exchange for this commission: a more secure platform to guarantee payments and reliability. And also, indicating at any time what user data is used by the application and what it is for.
It’s a big blow to the back for Apple and its way of selling applications, which will surely have made Tim Cook and his family smile.
