Twitter, how Musk could bypass the ‘Apple tax’

Peace between Twitter e Apple convenient for both: Elon Musk may have a simple method already used by other apps to get around it 30% “fee” on App Store purchases for Twitter Blue. This is the same system used by several apps for subscription streaming and it is required by Cupertino policies.

Twitter and Apple, like Musk could bypass the App Store fee

Last week, Elon Musk and Tim Cook met to avoid what could have been an inconvenient discount for both of them. Musk has repeatedly expressed his disappointment that Apple is asking for a 30% of each transaction made through the App Store payment system (15% for developers making less than a million dollars a year). But in the last few weeks he had come to direct confrontation.

Musk had shifted the focus by saying that Apple would “push Twitter out of the App Store” and that it had removed advertising on the platform because it “hates free speech”. So that Cupertino would risk losing face. But if Apple doesn’t charge Musk the 30%, it could risk a knock-on effect: other developers would also ask for a “discount“. And Apple doesn’t want that to happen.

But there is a solution that could leave both satisfied, or at least no one really dissatisfied. As expert Mark Gurman explains on Bloomberg, the section 3.1.3(b) of the App Store Policies provides that developers can have a site to make payments for their platform, as long as they are also available on the App Store.

In other words, Musk could charge 8 dollars perr Twitter Blue on a site (Twitter itself) and raise the price for ain-app purchases for $10 or $11. That way she would have her eight dollars anyway. The only stipulation is that it should avoid advertising the payment on the site within the iOS app.

The alternative would be a new process like Apple vs Epic Games, but even more sensational. Something that would create problems for both companies. Apple doesn’t want to lose face, and Musk would like to make Twitter competitive within three years and then re-list it on the stock exchange. Without an agreement, it is difficult to achieve both of these results.