Apple disagrees with what is currently happening at messaging service Telegram, a kind of Russian WhatsApp. Users of the service sometimes charge money for granting access to their posts on the social medium. But as it turns out, that goes against the guidelines of the oh-so-strict App Store policy.
Therefore, Telegram must now remove the pay-to-view feature from its service, says founder Pavel Durov in a blog post. Some content creators gratefully used third-party bots and options to make money. But Apple doesn’t want any of that, because the company is missing out on App Store taxes.
Apple wants to see money
On every purchase someone makes through the App Store, the provider must pay up to thirty percent commission to Apple. But when someone uses third-party tools, the company thus misses out on that commission. Now Telegram is being taken to task, but is the developer responsible?
The App Store (Image: EPA / Ritchie B. Tongo)
One could argue that this is not the case, since content creators are thus using third-party tools. There’s basically little Telegram can do about that; so will we soon have to pay a thirty percent commission on a Tag you send via WhatsApp or Signal? That seems a bit excessive to us.
Big company abuses acquired power
Durov is at least clear about this. “This is the next example that shows Apple abusing its position of power. This is now at the expense of people trying to monetize their own content. I hope lawmakers in the EU and other places hit such companies hard with a sky-high tax.”
Telegram and Apple have been at loggerheads before. For example, the messaging service recommends that users purchase the Premium subscription through its own website, as it is cheaper there. After all, that price does not depend on the whims of companies like Google and Apple, Durov explained.
