FT Web-based app more popular than app sold in Apple store
(Reuters) - More than 700,000 people use the Financial Times' Web-based mobile application to access news and other content, making it more popular than the version sold in Apple's App Store. — The business newspaper …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Financial Times spent 2011 refusing to route subscriptions through Apple's iTunes Store rather than surrender the direct customer relationship, a stance Reuters reported back in April when the paper declined to give up subscriber data. The standoff ended in late August when the FT's iOS apps were pulled from the App Store after the two sides failed to compromise on in-app payments.
Three weeks later the bet is showing results: more than 700,000 people use the FT's Web-based mobile application, making it more popular than the native version that once sat in Apple's store. For context on scale, News Corp's WSJ iPad app counted just 64,000 active users as of May 2010 — though Murdoch's point then was the same one the FT is now proving: keep the money.
First-order effects
- The FT now distributes to iPhone and iPad owners entirely outside Apple's billing system, keeping full subscriber revenue and customer data instead of paying the iTunes commission Apple demanded.
- Apple loses both the commission on FT subscriptions and a marquee newspaper brand from its App Store catalog — a visible defection by one of the highest-profile publishers in mobile news.
Second-order effects
- Other publishers weighing Apple's in-app subscription terms now have a working proof point that a Web app can match or beat an App Store presence, weakening Apple's leverage in negotiations with every remaining media partner.
- Rival platforms and browser makers gain a selling point against Apple: content that works on any device without a gatekeeper cut, pressuring Apple to soften subscription terms or risk more publisher exits.
Third-order effects
- If Web-based distribution proves durable for premium publishers, the industry structure shifts from platform-controlled storefronts toward publisher-owned relationships, with HTML5-class web apps as the escape hatch from platform tolls.
- App stores' long-term power over media pricing comes into question: the more high-value publishers route around them, the more the stores risk becoming optional discovery channels rather than mandatory payment rails.
The trend: Premium publishers are testing whether open-web distribution can replace app-store placement without sacrificing reach — and the FT's numbers suggest the subscriber relationship may be worth more than the shelf space.