<story><title>Apple and Google Face Growing Revolt Over App Store ‘Tax’</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-22/apple-and-google-face-growing-revolt-over-app-store-tax</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cgriswald</author><text>Steam does not sell me a locked down hardware platform preventing me from buying the software directly from the publisher. Nor does Steam force me to buy DLC through Steam, I am free to buy the DLC directly from the publisher. Steam gets a cut of what I buy &lt;i&gt;from Steam&lt;/i&gt; and I am not locked into buying from Steam in order to make my PC useful.&lt;p&gt;Apple sells me a locked down hardware platform that requires me to go through them for all software purchases &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; all data purchases made with that software.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; But just from my single viewpoint, it doesn&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;feel&amp;quot; unreasonable.&lt;p&gt;It seems unreasonable to me that Apple should get a cut of my Amazon Video purchases. Apple adds no value there; they just get in the way and try to take a cut. I &lt;i&gt;already have&lt;/i&gt; a relationship with Amazon and when I download a video from Amazon, it costs Apple nothing.&lt;p&gt;The entire thing where I have to make a purchase through the Amazon website rather than the Amazon or Amazon Video app and then download it with Amazon Video app is just stupid.</text></item><item><author>ObsoleteNerd</author><text>Doesn&amp;#x27;t Valve take 30% from games on Steam? But they&amp;#x27;re complaining Apple taking 30% is too much?&lt;p&gt;I also don&amp;#x27;t really think the Apple&amp;#x2F;Google fee is that unreasonable. Considering the resources, tools, marketplaces, tutorials, payment processing, all the other All dev stuff they provide in general. Yes if your app goes big, they make a lot of money. But for every big app there&amp;#x27;s something like 9 that fail completely (it&amp;#x27;s murky due to how many apps aren&amp;#x27;t intended to profit in the first place, and are just made to attract customers to a brand).&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know the numbers though. Maybe they could charge lots less. But just from my single viewpoint, it doesn&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;feel&amp;quot; unreasonable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>madrox</author><text>Steam is also adding a lot of value for that rev-share. A social network...kickstart-esque backing of projects...cloud saves...great search and discoverability. There is a reason why developers choose Steam even though they operate on platforms that don&amp;#x27;t require it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple and Google Face Growing Revolt Over App Store ‘Tax’</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-22/apple-and-google-face-growing-revolt-over-app-store-tax</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cgriswald</author><text>Steam does not sell me a locked down hardware platform preventing me from buying the software directly from the publisher. Nor does Steam force me to buy DLC through Steam, I am free to buy the DLC directly from the publisher. Steam gets a cut of what I buy &lt;i&gt;from Steam&lt;/i&gt; and I am not locked into buying from Steam in order to make my PC useful.&lt;p&gt;Apple sells me a locked down hardware platform that requires me to go through them for all software purchases &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; all data purchases made with that software.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; But just from my single viewpoint, it doesn&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;feel&amp;quot; unreasonable.&lt;p&gt;It seems unreasonable to me that Apple should get a cut of my Amazon Video purchases. Apple adds no value there; they just get in the way and try to take a cut. I &lt;i&gt;already have&lt;/i&gt; a relationship with Amazon and when I download a video from Amazon, it costs Apple nothing.&lt;p&gt;The entire thing where I have to make a purchase through the Amazon website rather than the Amazon or Amazon Video app and then download it with Amazon Video app is just stupid.</text></item><item><author>ObsoleteNerd</author><text>Doesn&amp;#x27;t Valve take 30% from games on Steam? But they&amp;#x27;re complaining Apple taking 30% is too much?&lt;p&gt;I also don&amp;#x27;t really think the Apple&amp;#x2F;Google fee is that unreasonable. Considering the resources, tools, marketplaces, tutorials, payment processing, all the other All dev stuff they provide in general. Yes if your app goes big, they make a lot of money. But for every big app there&amp;#x27;s something like 9 that fail completely (it&amp;#x27;s murky due to how many apps aren&amp;#x27;t intended to profit in the first place, and are just made to attract customers to a brand).&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know the numbers though. Maybe they could charge lots less. But just from my single viewpoint, it doesn&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;feel&amp;quot; unreasonable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jimbokun</author><text>As I understand it, if you already have a subscription for Amazon Video through the web, then download the Amazon Video app and login to your existing account, Apple doesn&amp;#x27;t get anything.&lt;p&gt;Which is why the article emphasized Netflix trying to get customers to sign up through their web site, and not the app.</text></comment>