They were sued by Epic Games for the same shit and Epic won on one count which allows them to put links to alternative payment methods and go around Apple.
Comment on Apple to Soon Take Up to 30% Cut From All Patreon Creators in iOS App
dan@upvote.au 1 month ago
Why does Apple feel they deserve a 30% cut? In cases like this, Apple aren’t providing any value at all.
Kirp123@lemmy.world 1 month ago
kurmudgeon@lemmy.world 1 month ago
So couldn’t patreon just argue in court that this precedent was already set with epic?
Kirp123@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I’m not a lawyer but I think they could.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
They provide the payment system. They also mandate it.
If you subscribe on the website you don’t have to pay the extra. It’s only for subscriptions initiated via the app
tabular@lemmy.world 1 month ago
An app you can only get via the Apple store, mandated by Apple?
ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
You can make the subscription through the website on the phone just as well and not pay the cut to apple.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Most likely the app exists just because people don’t know how to type patreon.com into the browser anymore
Full functionality is available on the web AFAIK. And if you subscribe on the web, there’s no Apple cut, but you can still use the app to see said content.
It’s an inconvenience, but a super easy one to get past and not exclusive to Patreon so a trick any Apple users should know anyway if they enjoy paying subscriptions for things (Netflix, Spotify, whatever)
tabular@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I too assume the Patreon App doesn’t do anything that cannot be done on their web page. I can imagine there good dev reasons but also bad incentives to make it an app.
I am biased against Apple as I like being the on in control of my hardware/software… but is it a stretch to say Apple influence their users to use apps instead of webpages (so they can rentseek a cut)?
Dojan@pawb.social 1 month ago
Yeah. But why would you use the app? I personally didn’t know there even was an app.
tabular@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Maybe it offers something better than on whatever web browser Apple mandates, or maybe no reason but user preference.
hayvan@piefed.world 1 month ago
Deserving is irrelevant under Capitalism. It’s only whether they can get away with it or not?
willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
And fixing this problem is going to require a similar attitude from the people tired of this.
sparky@lemmy.federate.cc 1 month ago
We have a winner
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Because apple is a “premium” product, so you have to pay a “premium” fee for normal stuff so it feels like you’re using “premium” services
dan@upvote.au 1 month ago
But you’re getting literally the same Patreon content.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 1 month ago
But you’re paying more, so it’s “premium” content, clearly.
cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
gotta get the money to bribe trump somehow
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Just pass on the cost of the corruption to the consumer, as usual. It’s the Corruption Tax.
Postimo@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Where else would it come from? 🤷♂️
vogi@piefed.social 1 month ago
This sums the problem up fairly nicely I think. I do wonder with Apple being a gatekeeper by EUs own definition and unfair sales terms supposed to be history with the Digital Markets Act in place this can’t go through, right?!?! at least not in the EU… assuming they do their job.
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This is THE way that Apple gets any revenue from the enormous and highly successful app platform and ecosystem they created. They say “go nuts, make money on our platform, but share some with us in exchange for our maintaining that platform.” This is reasonable. Apple is providing a service to Patreon, and access to their use base. That ain’t nothing.
I agree that subjecting creator donations to the 30% is about the shittiest use case for this and I wish they would make an exception. But your post about how Apple is doing absolutely nothing here is garbage.
ieGod@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
It’s one way but not the only way. They make money from developers before they even write a single line of code, every year.
dan@upvote.au 1 month ago
Apple is doing nothing in this particular case, not in general. There’s cases where the 30% is more justified.
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Oh is there some case where Apple is creati by the content inside the app??? Do tell.
dan@upvote.au 1 month ago
I meant more if people wouldn’t have found your app without Apple. In that case, they’re essentially handling marketing for you.
XLE@piefed.social 1 month ago
Apple also gets money from developers who use their platform already. That should be it.
Apple will already bully small developers off their platform while giving bigger companies first-class treatment.
Taldan@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Lack of competition. No other app store is allowed to operate on Apple devices. They have a monopoly, which is the only reason they can charge as much as they do
Sure, Apple are providing a payments platform, but why do they deserve 10x what Stripe charges?
I don’t believe that 30% cut includes payment processing. That’s an additional fee
Sad to think about how little creators actually get at the end of the day. Example of a $100 donation/subscription:
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Apple takes 30%
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Card companies take ~4%
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Patreon takes 10%
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Taxes take another big chunk
After all that a the creator would have, what, $40?
dan@upvote.au 1 month ago
No other app store is allowed to operate on Apple devices
That’s only true outside of Europe. In the EU, they were forced to allow third-party app stores.
- Card companies take ~4%
- Patreon takes 10%
Does Patreon’s cut not include payment processing?
The other thing that’s ridiculous in the USA is how much credit card processing costs. Stripe is around 3%, while in countries it can be half of that (in Australia, it’s commonly around 1% for debit cards and 1.5% for credit cards).
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artyom@piefed.social 1 month ago
It’s not about what they deserve, it’s about what they want.
Gargantuan@piefed.social 1 month ago
I suspect this has more to do with closing a loophole than going after Patreon and only Patreon.
People don’t have to subscribe through the app. and Patreon don’t have to offer that functionality in the App. Apple don’t have Patreon locked in to their platform.
lofuw@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Why does Apple feel they deserve a 30% cut?
Because they can. Time and time again, useful idiots have proven their dipshittery by sucking off the people taking them for a ride.
A main tenant of business decisions is to fuck over your customers as hard as they’re willing to be fucked. Since nobody has any standards these days, corporations make a killing.
Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 month ago
It’s just platform-milking, just like Meetup.com’s latest antics; there isn’t deep analysis needed to everything, haha. “Capitalism” is totally a legitimate answer despite being just one word.
Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz 1 month ago
Meetup is now owned by Bending Spoons, who have also enshittified wetransfer, Evernote, eventbrite, AOL, vimeo. They buy decent products that never exploded to ipo status, fire everyone and milk the rest for whatever they can charge.
kautau@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Ironic that they named themselves on a plot about breaking out of a cycle of control, classic Palantir or Anduril vibes too of like “haha movies good where stonks”
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Why does one company need to own meetup and eventbrite?
Is that not a monopoly? How does it not violate any anti-trust laws?
blitzen@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
There is one, Mobilizon
JamieDub86@piefed.social 1 month ago
You got a link to what meetup has been up to?
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I, too, am interested in hearing about these supposed shenanigans.
Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 month ago
No, but I used to be more active until I saw that they started to increasingly prevent you from talking to other participants, and even seeing who other people are (can’t even tell gender or anything) unless you paid for their higher tier. I literally saw it get added out of the blue after years of no such restrictions, and they’ve only dug deeper and deeper. I couldn’t even connect with someone with whom I met just because I didn’t attempt to get their number immediately on the spot.
JamieDub86@piefed.social 1 month ago
Thank you. I havent used meetup in 10 or so years. Cant remember paid features then. People also had a profile, with a picture, so as you could see interests and groups they were part of, there was also a message board for the group and messaging members wasnt an issue. Sad to see what its become.
artyom@piefed.social 1 month ago
I dunno, I left a couple years ago after they stopped providing .ics, started spamming our members that we were paying for, and then refused to provide us with the emails of our members.
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Just join a group, and you’ll see. It’s so goddamn scummy and nickel/diming.