Apple CEO Tim Cook arrives at the world premiere of Apples “The Morning Show” at Lincoln Center- David Geffen Hall on October 28, 2019 in New York.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
News publishers participating in Apple News will be eligible to reduce the reduction in subscriptions to Apple’s first-year apps from 30% to 15%, Apple announced Thursday.
The move is Apple’s latest example of cutting exceptions for its 30% commission for in-app purchases for different industries and types of businesses under increasing control and criticism from developers. applications, competitors and regulators.
Apple News is a pre-installed application on iPhones that displays multiple news items in a single interface. It has 125 million monthly active users, Apple said, and the app is part of the company’s growing services business, which accounted for 21 percent of Apple’s sales in the most recent quarter.
In order to ensure the reduction, publishers will need to request a new program that Apple calls the News Partner Program.
News editors will be required to agree to provide all of their content to Apple in Apple News’ preferred file format and to provide metadata or story information, as required by Apple. Publishers will also need to have an active and strong presence in the markets where Apple News is available.
Publishers will be able to request the program on Apple’s website starting Thursday.
Program participants will also be able to get the 15% discount in the first year for subscriptions started through their own app and the Apple News app. Some posts have paid walls in Apple News and allow readers to subscribe through the app.
News editors are not the highest-income apps in the App Store. In the U.S., the top ten highest-grossing publishers grossed just over $ 68 million in the first seven months of 2021, said Sensor Tower, a company that tracks App Store trends. These companies include publishers of The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg News, and CNBC, which sell subscription access to paid-walled articles through Apple’s App Store.
It’s not the first app to lower App Store rates
Apple currently charges 30% of in-app purchases during the first year of a subscription billed through the App Store, but that amount drops to 15% if the customer subscribes for a second year.
Last year, Apple introduced the Small Business App Store program, which allows companies earning less than $ 1 million in annual net sales from Apple to also receive a 15% reduced acquisition rate. This program would be more suitable for publishers who earn less than a million dollars a year, Apple said.
Apple also has a program for established video vendors, such as Amazon, that offers an acquisition rate of less than 15% if companies integrate their apps with Siri and other Apple features.
Apple said Wednesday it would launch the program to support publishers and ensure its customers access to quality news sources.
But the announcement comes because 30% of Apple gets from most purchases made since the app is under more pressure than ever.
A bipartisan bill currently being debated in Congress would target the payment system built into Apple’s app and require the company to allow app developers to use other less-paying payment processors.
A decision in an antitrust lawsuit focused on Apple’s App Store policies is also expected later this year. Epic Games sued Apple in 2019 to avoid its 30% commission on in-app purchases. Netflix and Spotify have eliminated the ability to subscribe to their services through Apple’s App Store to avoid taking 15% to 30%.
Several foreign governments are examining Apple’s App Store policies and their 30% cut. This week, a South Korean parliamentary committee took a key step in banning Apple from forcing developers to use its payment system.
Apple has argued in court that its 30% commission is essentially the same as other online software stores like Google Play or video game console stores, and that Apple’s rate has decreased over time.
Publishers were not informed of the program before its release, so there are no designated participants yet, Apple said. Publishers participating in the program will still be able to sell ads on Apple News and use other business models, such as affiliate links.
The program is independent of Apple News +, a subscription to a set of digital magazines and newspapers that costs $ 9.99 a month in the United States.
The Apple News service is only available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, a smaller number of international markets than other Apple services. Publishers outside these countries can provide Apple with an RSS feed and access to the program.
Apple has hired human publishers to curate its Apple News feeds and compile special packages for topics such as the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 election.