The relationship between Meta and Apple will become more hostile with the new tax of the App Store of the bitten apple firm. Last Monday, the people from Cupertino updated, silently, the rules of its App Store and consequently surprised both friends and strangers. Now, iOS developers must use in-app purchases. This will raise by 30 percent in “impulse sales,” to Apple, for posts on a social media app.
This modification mainly affects applications such as Facebook and Instagram. Particularly, because they allow their users to pay to increase the reach of their publications. This is the first time that Apple directly taxes advertising in applications under the iOS operating system.
App Store and the blow to Meta
This decision by the Apple firm does not make Mark Zuckerberg very happy about his proposed growth of Meta and his notion of the metaverse. The Verge was able to speak with Tom Channick, a spokesperson for Meta. In the statement made it expressed that “Apple continues to develop its policies to grow its own business while undermining others in the digital economy.” Channick expanded on Meta’s thinking by commenting that “Apple previously said it did not take a share of advertising revenue from developers, and now apparently changed its mind.”
On Meta’s future work, the company spokesperson ended by making it clear that “we remain committed to offering small businesses easy ways to run ads and grow their businesses on our apps.” Generally, payment for boosting posts is an uncommon feature, not only in Meta applications, but also in other social apps, such as TikTok or Twitter. The difference between Instagram and Facebook is that they do not currently use Apple’s in-app purchase system to promote posts, something that other social networks do.
The struggle for income
Meta does not fail to miss the truth about how this policy on increases is a radical change from Apple. Phil Schiller, head of the App Store, made the case last May during Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against the folks in Cupertino that the company had never taken a cut of ad revenue from iOS developers. This situation is not likely to be true in the near future. This new policy, for Meta employees, should not have a material impact on the technology company’s revenues.
However, there is concern about the set of precedents that has Apple at the center of changes. The current logic of the Cupertino company has the app exempt from having to use in-app purchases. Peter Ajemian, an Apple spokesman, in statements to The Verge platform, downplayed the new rule and expressed that the App Store has long taken a share of digital goods and services.
