
Big Tech is taking our freedom – How Apple is making developers pay ransom money - mateusjatenee
https://mateusguimaraes.com/posts/big-tech-is-taking-away-our-freedom-how-apple-is-making-companies-their-hostages-and-demanding-ransom-money
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schoolornot
30% seems to be the standard commission rate in the gig economy for "I did
something for you".

Grubhub: I brought you an order, give me 30%

Apple: I brought you a customer, give me 30%

Uber: I brought you a passenger, give me 30%

Competition can lower the industry rates for food & personal travel, though I
suspect there is price fixing at play right now. But it cannot for Apple
platforms. The antitrust proceedings _must_ happen for us to see progress
here. You don't persuade the largest company in the world to change their
ways. You legislate them to. Too bad our lawmakers have no teeth.

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helen___keller
> Competition can lower the industry rates for food & personal travel, though
> I suspect there is price fixing at play right now.

Considering (food & human) delivery is already a notoriously unprofitable
industry, I think the more likely answer is that competition already occurred
and these are somewhat fair prices we are left with.

Apple on the other hand, can host an app download on the app store without
paying a human to use a depreciating asset (that burns fossil fuels) to travel
several miles in meatspace.

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dmak
I'm not sure if I sympathize well with this but I am open to hearing more. If
I am a US citizen, then I have to pay ~30% taxes on my worldwide income. In
exchange, I have a very convenient passport, I have access to the US stock
market, etc...

Is it not the same for Apple? You pay 30% tax and you have to implement their
IAP. That's the cost of getting access to all the iPhone market share amongst
other things.

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Barrin92
It is the same for Apple but you're forgetting that this is bad for everyone
who isn't a US citizen. And in the same vein, these tech mini nation-states
create walled-gardens around themselves in the same vein nation-states erect
borders. And borders are a reason for huge welfare losses.

One reason you have a nation-state in the first place is so you avoid local
zero-sum games and you can force companies to compete on an open market, which
has huge positive upside for everyone who isn't Apple.

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sharemywin
I bet we're all think, I wish I wouldn't have bought all those 99 cents ipod
songs.

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thosewhoteach
The concept of "freedom" defined in the article makes no sense to me. It is
like saying "I would like the freedom to go where I please, even if it means I
am trespassing". No, that's not how it works in the real world.

>>Basecamp (DHH and Jason) can make their voice heard, but how many companies
(specially the small) have faced the same thing and just succumbed to Apple’s
“rules” and just had a 30% pay cut?

If you choose to use Stripe, are you taking a 5% (or whatever their commission
is for your region) pay cut? Arguing for the amount charged is different, but
calling it a pay cut (as if you were entitled to get that amount) is just
idiotic. Remember that you are _free_ to not release your app on the App store
if you don't want to "succumb" to the rules. Is the marketplace forcing you to
build the iOS app? Then blame the marketplace, not the gatekeeper. Or even
better, go play a different game where the marketplace doesn't force these
options on you.

DHH is acting like a whiny little baby, to be honest. How about: don't create
an iPhone app. Isn't Basecamp supposed to be an amazing pioneer when it comes
to SaaS? So see if you can chart a new path for others by refusing to build an
iPhone app and see what happens? Will that become the new trend? Will Apple be
forced to lower the commission or change these rules because everyone building
a SaaS starts doing the same thing as Hey? Also, will people switch to using
Android just so they can use Hey? It is not as if iOS is the only game in
town.

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adamhearn
Classic sensationalized title about apple. Yes this is a problem, but ransom
isn’t the right analogy here. Apple’s payment solution is both an outdated and
very apple way of doing things.

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sharemywin
antitrust bundling is probably a better description.

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arun6582
I switched from android to iphone because of privacy reasons I don’t agree
that I’m a customer of the service I’m using if i use it on Apple product I
trust Apple to do a review where it checks if service is harming my privacy
and I’m paying Apple for that

I think apple is fair here.

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lern_too_spel
The App Store doesn't do that or else Xcodeghost would never have happened. If
you mean at a high level that only certain categories of apps are allowed to
ask for certain permissions, the Google Play Store does that too.

