Netflix no longer allows new or returning users to pay for subscription through in-app purchase in its iOS app, requires them to sign up and pay via its website
Netflix is further distancing itself from Apple's iTunes tax bracket. Earlier this year, the streaming giant enabled iOS users …
Context & Ripple Effects
Netflix's move closes a loop it opened years earlier: it embraced in-app subscriptions for iPhone and iPad in 2015 at the same monthly rate as the web, and by late 2016 had become the top-grossing iOS app in the US — meaning a meaningful slice of its billing ran through Apple's cut. The August 2018 test bypassing iTunes payment in 33 countries was the rehearsal; blocking in-app payment for all new and returning users makes the website the default signup path.
The stakes are the App Store commission on every subscription started inside the iOS app, which for Netflix was material given its top-grossing rank. This article is the pivot point in a sequence that runs through the 2022 "reader apps" signup button and, per the related coverage, eventually to Netflix stripping iTunes billing even from longtime subscribers.
First-order effects
- New and returning iOS users can no longer start or resume a Netflix subscription inside the app — they are routed to Netflix's website to enter payment details directly, taking Apple out of that transaction entirely.
- Apple immediately loses the App Store commission on every signup Netflix would otherwise have captured in-app, hitting the revenue stream of what was the US's top-grossing iOS app.
Second-order effects
- Other large subscription apps now have a proven template from the category's biggest player for pushing signups to the web, raising the pressure on Apple to defend its in-app payment rules or lose more high-value developers.
- Netflix gains direct control of the customer billing relationship on iOS — payment data, cancellation flows, and future price changes no longer route through iTunes, strengthening its hand in pricing decisions.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds across subscription apps, Apple's cut erodes from a default tax on all iOS digital spending to a fee paid mainly by smaller developers who cannot absorb their own signup funnels — a shift that invites both developer revolt and regulatory scrutiny of the App Store's mandatory billing rules.
- App stores' leverage over content providers weakens structurally: the value migrates to whoever owns the customer relationship, and platforms like Apple must compete on distribution and discovery rather than payment rails.
The trend: Major subscription services are systematically migrating billing off Apple's App Store, converting the 30% in-app commission from an accepted cost into a contested one.