{"id":412284,"date":"2021-09-02T07:20:37","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T05:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=412284"},"modified":"2021-09-02T07:22:15","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T05:22:15","slug":"apple-will-let-media-apps-link-to-own-payment-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/412284-apple-will-let-media-apps-link-to-own-payment-systems.html","title":{"rendered":"Apple will let media apps link to own payment systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple Inc. will allow developers of some apps like Netflix to link from their software to external websites for payments by users, addressing a longstanding App Store complaint and settling an investigation by Japan\u2019s Fair Trade Commission.<\/p>\n

The Cupertino, California-based technology giant said the change will go into effect globally early next year for so-called reader apps spanning content like magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music and video.<\/p>\n

To date, Apple has forced such applications to use its in-app purchase system, which gives Apple up to a 30% commission on downloads and in-app subscriptions. That rule will still apply to games, the most lucrative class of mobile apps, as well as in-app purchases.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes at a time of rising regulatory scrutiny and criticism of the market dominance of Apple and Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google on mobile platforms.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a new bill\u00a0passed<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in South Korea that\u2019s set to force the two leading app store operators to allow users a choice of online payment methods. The first legislation of its kind, the bill will become law when signed by President Moon Jae-in and similar measures are\u00a0under consideration<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by U.S. lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s historic resoluteness about maintaining its 30% cut was relaxed in November when the company announced it would\u00a0reduce<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0its fee to 15% for app makers earning up to $1 million a year. The latest news helps the company achieve a settlement with Japan\u2019s regulator, which is now closing its investigation into the App Store.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have great respect for the Japan Fair Trade Commission and appreciate the work we\u2019ve done together, which will help developers of reader apps make it easier for users to set up and manage their apps and services,\u201d Phil Schiller, who oversees Apple\u2019s App Store, said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Companies like Netflix Inc. and Spotify Technology SA have long complained that Apple doesn\u2019t allow them to link to their web portals for users to sign up for their services. Apple has previously rejected or removed third-party applications that attempted to steer users to web-based alternative payment methods and Netflix has simply declined to offer an in-app sign-up option as a result.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

This is what you get when trying to sign up for Netflix on the iPhone today. In early 2022, it\u2019ll be a button that points you to Netflix\u2019s website to sign up and pay there. This is a major, structural change that will save Apple a lot of scrutiny.\u00a0pic.twitter.com\/8iWDUTceZK<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Gurman (@markgurman)\u00a0September 2, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Last month, as part of a\u00a0preliminary settlement<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of a class-action lawsuit with App Store developers, Apple agreed to pay out $100 million and to let U.S.-based software makers advertise outside payment methods to consumers via email. Today\u2019s decision appears similarly incremental.<\/p>\n

In-game spending accounts for more than half of App Store sales — $26 billion of $41.5 billion of consumer spending in the first half of this year, according to\u00a0Sensor Tower<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0— but is not affected by this new policy change.<\/p>\n

Subscription apps, which are most likely to benefit from Apple\u2019s relaxing of rules for reader apps, accounted for less than 13% of user spending over that period across the iOS App Store and Android Play Store.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s change won\u2019t resolve its legal dispute with Epic Games Inc. over in-app purchases in global hit Fortnite, which alone generated\u00a0more than $1 billion<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of sales through Apple\u2019s platform in its 30 months on the App Store.<\/p>\n

Epic wants to be able to handle in-app purchases directly, and the judge overseeing the trial between the two companies has suggested that Apple compromise by making a change similar to the one announced for readers apps today.<\/p>\n

\n

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says<\/h3>\n

The App Store monopoly is slowly being broken down to enable greater competition and consumer choice and the move to enable developers to link to external sites for user sign-ups for subscription offerings is just another step in that process. Still, this won\u2019t impact mobile games, which are solely based on microtransactions within the app, and account for about 70% of App Store spending.<\/p>\n

— Matthew Kanterman, analyst<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A spokesman for Japan\u2019s FTC said Apple\u2019s voluntary improvement measures were sufficient to close its investigation. In Japan and South Korea, where companies like Naver Corp. operate large businesses around web comics apps and payment services, the particular allowance from Apple may prove more impactful than in other global markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause developers of reader apps do not offer in-app digital goods and services for purchase, Apple agreed with the JFTC to let developers of these apps share a single link to their website to help users set up and manage their account,\u201d Apple said in its statement.<\/p>\n

Apple is not allowing alternative payment systems within apps themselves, saying it will \u201chelp developers of reader apps protect users when they link them to an external website to make purchases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now read: Redesign for Apple Watch Series 7 revealed<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple Inc. will allow developers of some apps like Netflix to link from their software to external websites for payments by users, addressing a longstanding App Store complaint and settling an investigation by Japan\u2019s Fair Trade Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":390064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[605,8911,71926,691,2054],"class_list":["post-412284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-apple","tag-apple-app-store","tag-apple-apps","tag-ios","tag-netflix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412290,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412284\/revisions\/412290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}