Telegram CEO Accuses Apple of Destroying Dreams and Crushing Entrepreneurs

[MacRumors]

Telegram's CEO has accused Apple of destroying dreams and ruining entrepreneurship with its App Store rules, more specifically, the company's 30% commission levied on in-app purchases for developers who make over $1 million a year.

Writing on his Telegram channel, Pavel Durov said that Apple had informed the messaging platform that it would not be able to allow content creators to use third-party payment methods for sales. Telegram users can donate to content creators and access special content using a third-party payment method and not Apple's in-app purchasing system.

Durov said Apple is not "happy with content creators monetizing their efforts without paying a 30% tax" and that Telegram has no choice but to disable paid posts and channels on its iOS app. "This is just another example of how a trillion-dollar monopoly abuses its market dominance at the expense of millions of users who are trying to monetize their own content," Durov continued.

Durov accused Apple of destroying dreams and crushing entrepreneurs with its App Store tax, which requires a 15% or 30% commission to Apple for most in-app purchases. Durov called upon regulators in the EU, India, and around the world to "start taking action." Durov's full message can be found below.

Some content creators started using third-party payment bots to sell access to individual posts in their Telegram channels. This way, content creators could receive close to 100% of whatever their subscribers paid, which was great.

Unfortunately, we received word from Apple that they were not happy with content creators monetizing their efforts without paying a 30% tax to Apple. Since Apple has complete control over its ecosystem, we had no alternative but to disable such paid posts on iOS devices.

This is just another example of how a trillion-dollar monopoly abuses its market dominance at the expense of millions of users who are trying to monetize their own content. I hope that the regulators in the EU, India, and elsewhere start taking action before Apple destroys more dreams and crushes more entrepreneurs with a tax that is higher than any government-levied VAT.

In the meantime, we at Telegram shall work to offer creators powerful and easy-to-use tools to monetize their content – outside of Apple's restrictive ecosystem.

This is not the first time Durov has spoken out against Apple. In August the CEO lashed out at Apple against its "obscure" App Store rules.

Article Link: Telegram CEO Accuses Apple of Destroying Dreams and Crushing Entrepreneurs

 

[Born Again]

Can someone explain why I can use my credit card on apps like Amazon but not on other apps?

 

[schlitzz]

K, you build your own smartphone platform, hardware, infrastructure, and accessories. THEN tell us HOW 30% is unfair.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Sounds like jealousy. They just couldn’t do what Apple has done. Apple is the top dog and the App Store belongs to Apple only.

How about building your own platform?

 

[brofkand]

Can someone explain why I can use my credit card on apps like Amazon but not on other apps?

Trillion dollar companies carve out exceptions for each other.

 

[yaxomoxay]

K, you build your own smartphone platform, hardware, infrastructure, and accessories. M

That’s an unfair comparison thou. WE pay for the smartphone, hardware, and accessories.

 

[ralph_sws]

Mr. Durov, create a new phone manufacturer and dictate the terms
btw…..without apple you wouldn't exist

 

[Apple_Robert]

Seems he wants to profit without adhering to Apple’s store. More whining from people who believe they are entitled just because.

 

[Danfango]

Problem solved: raise your price 30%!

Oh no wait your business model doesn't work? Find another one!

 

[Soba]

I do not have a strong opinion about the topic of payment methods, but I do know that the Telegram iOS and Mac apps—which I use heavily on a daily basis—are buggy, incomplete, and have pretty mediocre (and in some ways primitive) UX. These problems have nothing to do with Apple's restrictions.

If Telegram actually released good software, then it might start lending more credence to their arguments. Releasing slipshod products and then complaining about how bad you have it undermines your credibility on all fronts (and yes, this also goes for Apple).

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Can someone explain why I can use my credit card on apps like Amazon but not on other apps?

Trillion dollar companies carve out exceptions for each other.

Apple does not take commissions from apps selling physical goods nor do they disallow using credit card directly on those.

 

[jlc1978]

This whole tax nomenclature is stupid. Apple runs a store and marks up the price like any other store. Telegram and others want access to Apple ‘s user base for free, plain and simple, and be allowed to profit off of it without Apple getting anything for it.

They should be careful what they wish for, as Apple can simply change the fee structure to make access more costly than today, especially for popular apps.

That’s an unfair comparison thou. WE pay for the smartphone, hardware, and accessories.

And you pay for boxed software from a store that also marks it up. Same thing.

 

[NightFox]

Can someone explain why I can use my credit card on apps like Amazon but not on other apps?

Because you're paying for physical goods that aren't delivered through iOS. Try buying a Kindle download off Amazon - you can't.

 

[Steve121178]

Sounds like jealousy. They just couldn’t do what Apple has done. Apple is the top dog and the App Store belongs to Apple only.

How about building your own platform?

Ridiculous comment.

Telegram are not a hardware company and Apple's charging is excessive and disproportionate. Which is why the EU and other regulators will change how Apple operate for the benefit of the consumers & developers alike. It's just going to take some time.

There's something wrong with people championing Apple's greed and profiteering.

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

Mr. Durov, create a new phone manufacturer and dictate the terms
btw…..without apple you wouldn't exist

Exactly!! Without Apple….MR Duriv…you wouldn’t exist!

 

[yaxomoxay]

And you pay for boxed software from a store that also marks it up. Same thing.

I don’t care how much Apple charges, but saying that they shouldn’t complain because Apple built the iPhone - which you and I pay for - is not correct.

 

[NightFox]

Trillion dollar companies carve out exceptions for each other.

Actually, they don't. You can't buy Kindle books through Amazon's iOS app.

 

[norcom]

Oh no! I'm so sad there's going to be less paid posts! How will they shove more advertising at me!

 

[JonathanParker]

Routine monthly Telegram whining.

 

[Steve121178]

Exactly!! Without Apple….MR Duriv…you wouldn’t exist!

Telegram is wildly popular on Android and on the desktop. They'd still exist without Apple's userbase.

 

[Ethosik]

Apple does not take commissions from apps selling physical goods nor do they disallow using credit card directly on those.

Agreed. My credit card is added on the Newegg app. Yes I know Newegg is in hot mess right now but I still buy from them occasionally.

 

[DFZD]

I miss the times of Steve Jobs and Larry Page when the good tech companies were fighting Microsoft and not being total jackasses to other smaller ones.

 

[uller6]

The obvious solution to this is for Apple to charge large companies to use/license the Apple SDK once they reach a certain number of downloads. That way smaller companies can continue to make software for less cost, but larger companies will need to contribute to continue to access the large established iPhone user base. This is how Microsoft does it with the Xbox and I don’t see anyone complaining about that…

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Does Telegram not have a web app?

Just prompt everyone using the iOS app over to the web app.

At this point, there’s virtually no reason to prefer a native app to a web app.

Note, for example, MacRumors. For a long time they said they’d have a native iOS app. And eventually they just stopped saying that - I presume they realized there was no reason for it.

Notifications were the last big thing that only native apps had, and with iOS 16, Apple finally supports the web notification standard via Safari, so that’s gone. There’s no reason for native social media apps anymore.

Maybe some games need native apps still. But honestly, threejs/Babylon work perfectly well on an iPhone for anything short of AAA graphics. And how many games on iOS would really be considered to have AAA graphics anyways?

If you’d like, kill some time from any platform with a web browser on this little arcade game I wrote:

https://www.marksfam.com/eggdrop

It was a native iOS app 13 years ago. I saw no reason to keep paying Apple every year to keep it listed, so I stopped and moved to just hosting it myself as a web app instead.

It’s served up by a $35 raspberry pi next to me. I pay $10/year for a domain that I want anyways for email and stuff. And that’s all for expenses. Dramatically cheaper and easier than involving Apple for the exact same experience.

You might complain that my game is too crude. But I’d argue it’s better than, IE, Flappy Bird.

Maybe you point out I make no money. Why should I? My cost to provide it to you is virtually none, so I have no incentive to charge for it. I could throw in ads, but they’d detract from the experience. I could charge for it, but virtually nobody would pay.

Maybe you’d say nobody will see it? It’s not like anybody saw it on the App Store. Whether I distribute it this way or via the App Store, I have to go around (paying to) marketing it if I want people to know it exists.

This was mostly just a POC to see whether it was a viable way of playing games or not. And my conclusion is it absolutely works.

The whole high score thing is actually new to the web version. Couldn’t be done as an iOS app without me hosting content somewhere (which, if I’m doing that anyways, why wouldn’t I just host the app itself and remove Apple from the picture?)

 

[ousboui]

This guy is 104th richest person in the world, worth over 15 billion dollars. He amassed this wealth by making an app then turns around and complains about the platform he used to make himself rich.