Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Allegedly Buys Ads for Subscription-Based Apps to Collect More Commission [Updated]

Wildkraut said:
I love my wife, my children and the rest my family, but would never love a company.
You know it's a one sided love, right? Okay they love your wallet, that's it! 🙂
Click to expand...
Yeah, you're absolutely right, I changed it to "adore" because of their products. Your viewpoint is much more healthy than my first version of my post.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nvmls
Bruh. Hey Tim Cook, seems like the right hand doesn't know what the left advertising department is doing at Apple. Wait, did that come out right? I may have left something out...
 
News of this broke a few days ago.

I don't consider it BIG news.

What is BIG news is what's about to happen on Dec 9th !

Apple is about to lose its grip on the App Store !

Except for Downloads & Updates, some clever App Devs are doing their part to soon make the App Store irrelevant !

Macrumors isn't reporting on it, but others now are.

Makes one wonder.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: decypher44
now i see it said:
So Apple’s ads generate 1000 sales (for example). Apple gets $300 and the app developer gets $700.
Seems like a win/win to me.
Click to expand...
Exactly! And even IF it does mean that it becomes more expensive for the developer to buy that same ad space and direct it to the commission free sign up link, I can't imagine that a "free" subscriber at 70% revenue would earn them less than a "paid for" subscriber (in the sense of the dev having to pay for ad space to get the subscriber) at 100%. I guess it COULD be that way...but I dunno...if a company offered to pay for all my online advertising and take a 30% cut...which included payment processing, hosting etc...I would 100% take them up on that offer. No risk...no expense...only upside as far as I can see!
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: moulderine
TVOR said:
Exactly! And even IF it does mean that it becomes more expensive for the developer to buy that same ad space and direct it to the commission free sign up link, I can't imagine that a "free" subscriber at 70% revenue would earn them less than a "paid for" subscriber (in the sense of the dev having to pay for ad space to get the subscriber) at 100%. I guess it COULD be that way...but I dunno...if a company offered to pay for all my online advertising and take a 30% cut...which included payment processing, hosting etc...I would 100% take them up on that offer. No risk...no expense...only upside as far as I can see!
Click to expand...
But these companies are already running their own ads. So Apple is running up the cost of their advertising as well as taking the 30% cut.
 
tbh this is a very weird way of framing it: "losing some third-party apps millions of dollars in revenue".
It's unlikely this is directly eating away from the dev's revenue cake of users with subscriptions from outside the App Store. Instead Apple is bringing new customers to these apps, generating extra revenues for the devs. And of course Apple is taking their cut, well earned, they put in some extra efforts.

Also, I'd be very surprised if the distribution contract between Apple and developers doesn't include Apple being allowed running all kind of marketing activities (which devs usually crave for).
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: moulderine, zarmanto, FindingAvalon and 3 others
The hardest bridge some of the most faithful fans will have to cross is removing themselves from prejudice and admitting to their conscience that Apple is not in fact wholly possessed of the qualities they feverishly convinced themselves was a congenital and incontrovertible truth.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PC_tech
I understand wanting/needing a profit to reinvest in the company to help grow and improve itself, but I really hate the "Maximize profits at all costs!" some companies go through. Considering that Apple has not just billions in the bank but *HUNDREDS* of billions, I just don't see the need.

Before anyone says it, yes, I understand economics, but I don't have to like it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: arlomedia and FindingAvalon
m.x said:
I love admire Apple very much and I adore my new 14" MBP, but my god are they greedy with the App Store. It's like these are two different companies, on one side there are these amazing devices and on the other side there's abysmal treatment of developers and this penny-pinching - just to name a few things. In his recent The Talk Show episode, John Gruber quoted a friend of his with a quote which is so true: "Apple does one thing great: they make creative tools for people and sell them at a fair price that people will pay for it and everything else they do is - it ruins the good part of Apple. Everything else. It's corrupting.". I really would love to see them stepping back from the greed and their addiction to App Store revenue, but I think the only way they learn is when there is intervention from the outside.
Click to expand...
This may not be a popular opinion, but not everything that one develops is free and clear of fees to sell. Unfortunately we live in a world, where if you develop into an eco-system, there might be fees associated with selling into that eco-system. Apple didn't develop an app eco system for them to allow for a free of fees marketplace. Large companies have to think about revenue for everything they do. It's unfortunately the way these big companies stay in business and offer the innovations and conveniences we embrace when Apple puts out their products. With that said....I do think that putting out ads for third party apps without at least a notification to that third party is a little shady, however I do think there is an argument to be made that if Apple is putting ads out for your app, you will most likely be getting more traffic and potentially more revenue than if they weren't putting out an ad for your app.
Large companies like Facebook and Spotify are going to complain about getting gouged on fees because anything tapping into their millions or even billions of dollars of revenue is something of course they are going to try and argue. It's the name of the game. I think the main story out of this report is the lack of consent, and I think that might be problematic, however Apple's desire to advertise into their App Store, from a business perspective makes sense.
 
TVOR said:
Ummm...as I stated in my previous post...as a business owner myself...I would take this deal all day long! And the whole consent thing...I guess it depends on your worldview! Would you complain if somebody deposited $1000 in your bank account WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT?
Click to expand...
That's an overly simplistic way of looking at it. It's not like these companies aren't already running their own ads. Apple is driving up the cost of running ads in order to also take a percentage of the money that devs could have had 100% of if they had made the sale themselves.
 
  • Like
Reactions: moulderine, decypher44, tclementdev and 1 other person
So Apple’s ads generate 1000 sales (for example). Apple gets $300 and the app developer gets $700.
Seems like a win/win to me.
Click to expand...

Here's an example why it's not win/win.

Without the apple ad:
A customer is interested in HBOMax and google searches HBOMax. Top link points directly to HBOMax.com, user goes there and buys a subscription. HBOMax: collects 100% of subscription

With the apple ad:
A customer is interested in HBOMax and google searches HBOMax. The top link is apple ad for HBOMax app. The customer clicks the ad for HBOMax and buys a subscription from inside the downloaded app. HBOMax: collects 70% of subscription

The advertisement is redundant and only there to slide the customer away from the HBOMax website. The customer was going to purchase the subscription regardless of the apple advertisement.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: freedomlinux, JGIGS, Oblivious.Robot and 7 others
This, at a minimum, has to be a copyright violation. Did the affected companies give Apple the right to advertise on their behalf?
 
rpmurray said:
Tell your wife, children and the rest your family that your wallet is closed and then see how one sided their love is.
Click to expand...
Heh 🤣 , there is no mine or hers, both of us work, we one bank account… actually i have to push her to buy stuff… 😛 else she would still be using her 2014 MacBook Pro.
 
now i see it said:
So Apple’s ads generate 1000 sales (for example). Apple gets $300 and the app developer gets $700.
Seems like a win/win to me.
Click to expand...
This is more about subscription-based apps where the dev can offer subscriptions through their own website rather than the App Store and keep all of the profits - Apple's trying to stop customers 'buying direct', instead diverting customers to itself as an unnecessary middleman so it can take a 30% cut.
 
  • Like
Reactions: freedomlinux, 840quadra, decypher44 and 1 other person
ian87w said:
How is this news?
Walmart also advertises Colgate products so people buy them at Walmart.

How is this different?
Click to expand...
Walmart advertises itself. There's no confusion about who the ad is coming from even though they may be advertising that they stock Colgate products. In fact, even in situations like this, if you're doing anything other than listing a product in a catalogue, you generally need the brand to sign off on the messaging.

That's not at all what's happening here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back