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So I’m not really good at math. But it seems like Elon Musk is charging $11 now instead of an $8 subscription fee. He's basically charging back Apple 30% App Store fee to the iPhone consumers 🤦🏻‍♀️.
Article says $11 through Apple, and $7 on the website. That's in the neighborhood of a 57% markup, "to help defray the 30% Apple commission". So, 30% Apple commission plus 27% extra profit for Twitter. I think Elon thinks most people are really bad at math.
 
I assume this is the same for the Google Play Store?
In Google Play:

As of January 1, 2022, that service fee is equivalent to:
  • For developers who are enrolled in the 15% service fee tier, the service fee is:
    • 15% for the first $1M (USD) of earnings each year,
    • 30% for earnings in excess of $1M (USD) each year.
  • For developers who are not enrolled in the 15% service fee tier, the service fee is 30%.
  • For automatically renewing subscription products purchased by subscribers, the service fee is 15%.
 
I paid for TB at launch. I will continue to pay and it has little to do with JUST the blue check. But the check works!

I love the bookmark folders
I like posting videos longer than 2:20
I like being able to edit.
I like my comments aren’t buried. Edward Snowden responded to me twice on two different tweets. Had I not had the BLue check I doubt I would have been seen.

Anyone can spend their money how they feel. I will not tell you how to spend your money, but I find value in Twitter blue.
 
"11 dollars is absolutely outrageous and I hope it fails!" -Someone who was never going to subscribe anyways

There are people crying here who are paying subscriptions for wallpapers and weather apps on their iPhone.
 
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Then charge developers for what it costs to maintain their app on the App Store. Taking a percentage of every sale is just rent seeking.
Could be at a healthy 50-100% profit margin.
And it would still only be cents per app (on average).
Nobody is signing up for Twitter Blue because of Apple.
Sure the unified subscription management and security of going through Apple's payment system is worth 30%?!

I mean, imagine who would make it impossible to cancel your subscription or steal your credit card data outright if Apple weren't there as a benevolent gatekeeper?
 
Then charge developers for what it costs to maintain their app on the App Store. Taking a percentage of every sale is just rent seeking. Nobody is signing up for Twitter Blue because of Apple.
The one thing someone said that doesn't make sense is why lower the % for individual subs by how long they sub? It would make more sense to be by how long your app is on the store and/or how many users are subbed total
 
"11 dollars is absolutely outrageous and I hope it fails!" -Someone who was never going to subscribe anyways

There are people crying here who are paying subscriptions for wallpapers and weather apps on their iPhone.
There are largely two scenarios of paid subscriptions:
- Positive, when payment gives you some new perks.
- Negative, when you suddenly have to pay for what was free just yesterday. Here is where outrage comes from.

Also, Twitter immediately crapped in own pants by selling blue ticks to impersonators and other non-legitimate user accounts.
 
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Going to make a social media app called Swindler and see if I can make Musk and swindler friends buy it for $44,000,000,000.99. I just need to make sure it is full of swindler spam and not doing great business.
 
I'd pay $11 / month for a show documenting what's going on in Twitter every week.
 
Why would anyone want to pay for this?
That's the beauty of it.

When the iPhone X was first released, people wondered who in their right mind would pay $1k for a smartphone. As it turned out, millions did, and continue to do so today.

I am sure there are people willing to subscribe to Twitter Blue because they legitimately find value with the service, or they want to help keep service afloat in their own way, or some other reason which remains their own.

Let the market decide, and if Elon can make enough money this way to help offset the decline in ad revenue and keep Twitter afloat, good for him. I think people sometimes get too caught up in trying to hyper-analyse each and every decision and not realise that not every decision necessarily has to make sense (from their perspective).
 
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Makes sense given how Apple takes 30% for doing almost nothing.
Except providing the customers, support, the technology the platform is built on. If you have your own platform that works properly, apple is only the app provider. Twitter would draw customers to their website sign them up and they can download any apps to access the service. There would be no need to pay in app. If they didn’t need Apple more than Apple needs them, they would not need to have easy access to Apples customers. They would have their own customers they signup that happen to have iPhones.
 
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That's the beauty of it.

When the iPhone X was first released, people wondered who in their right mind would pay $1k for a smartphone. As it turned out, millions did, and continue to do so today.

I am sure there are people willing to subscribe to Twitter Blue because they legitimately find value with the service, or they want to help keep service afloat in their own way, or some other reason which remains their own.

Let the market decide, and if Elon can make enough money this way to help offset the decline in ad revenue and keep Twitter afloat, good for him. I think people sometimes get too caught up in trying to hyper-analyse each and every decision and not realise that not every decision necessarily has to make sense (from their perspective).
And there are millions who will say no.
Maybe he should have thought about not creating a hostile environment that advertisers have to evaluate if they can afford to be associated with Twitter.
 
And there are millions who will say no.
Maybe he should have thought about not creating a hostile environment that advertisers have to evaluate if they can afford to be associated with Twitter.
Huh? Twitter was hostile long before Elon came along. It’s amazing how some call an environment “hostile” when opinions from people with different views are no longer silenced.

Advertiser are only throwing a fit to show their disgust (put on a show for investors and supporters) for something they don’t agree with.

They either leave and lose revenue or leave and be just fine. It’s how it goes.
 
- Negative, when you suddenly have to pay for what was free just yesterday. Here is where outrage comes from.

Also, Twitter immediately crapped in own pants by selling blue ticks to impersonators and other non-legitimate user accounts.
Definitely fake outrage. Nothing is being taken away that was free. The platform still works just like it did before this subscription started, minus the kid abuse and extremely biased filtering. There are some perks coming with the subscription though. Also, users can still sign up online and pay the $7 or make the purchase in-app and pay the Apple tax.

What have you developed, of this scale, that ran flawlessly from its initial launch/re-launch?
 
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Option B) means giving Twitter your credit card directly. A company that has fired entire departments responsible for security.
Option A) is protected by Apple’s In App purchase infrastructure. Credit card details stay with Apple
I’ll buy neither. Good luck to the Option B folks.
I love how these companies want to whine and cry over having to pay Apple extra, but they have to deal with zero customer service issues like complaints for people wanting refunds or "being overcharged" for some reason.

I think all these App Store developers forget that if they open Pandora's box and get what they want then they are going to have to deal with all these customer service issues, the requests for refunds for either "fraudulent purchases" people who just forgot to cancel and the like and they are going to have to then have staff that are going to field and deal with these Customer Service complaints. Depending on some companies especially small ones who have massive user bases, probably NOT having to deal with that and potentially having to hire large support staff is actually worth forgoing the extra money and letting Apple handle all of that.
 
Then charge developers for what it costs to maintain their app on the App Store. Taking a percentage of every sale is just rent seeking. Nobody is signing up for Twitter Blue because of Apple.
That wouldn’t look very attractive to free apps.
 
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