Apple's new App Store guidelines say that social networking apps that sell “boosts” for posts must use in-app purchases for the transactions

With the release of iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16.1, Apple is updating the App Store review guidelines that are provided to developers who create apps for iPhones and iPads.

MacRumors 2022-10-25 Juli Clover

Context & Ripple Effects

Apple has repeatedly used App Store guideline revisions to define which app transactions fall under its payment rules, including an earlier clarification of in-app-purchase categories. The current change applies that rulemaking to a social platform’s paid distribution tools.

It arrives after Apple permitted developers to contact users about other payment methods under a prior US-developer agreement, making the treatment of post boosts a more consequential boundary between permitted outreach and in-app transactions.

First-order effects

Social networking apps selling post boosts on iPhone and iPad must process those purchases through Apple’s in-app-purchase system.
Apple gains direct control over the checkout path for a category of paid social promotion that had not been explicitly covered by the supplied guideline history.

Second-order effects

Meta is positioned to challenge the policy’s economic effect: its subsequent response says the requirement expands Apple’s business while undercutting other digital-economy participants.
Other social apps that monetize paid reach must align their boost flows with Apple’s rules, narrowing the room to use a separate payment path for that feature.

Third-order effects

If Apple continues defining advertising-adjacent features as in-app purchases, App Store governance will reach further into how platforms monetize business users, not only consumer digital goods.
The boundary-setting approach strengthens Meta’s dispute over boost payments as a test case for platform gatekeeper leverage over transactions embedded in other platforms’ services.

The trend: App Store policy is increasingly serving as the mechanism through which Apple determines which platform-native commercial features must use its payment rails.

Discussion

@eric_seufert Eric Seufert on x
Apple has update its App Store guidelines to require that social media post “boosts” be purchased as IAPs, entitling Apple to 30% of that advertising revenue. This is new as of iOS 16.1, which was released today https://twitter.com/...
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
Wow. This is absolutely insane. https://www.macrumors.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x
A great summary of Apple's latest policy insanity from @FOSSpatents: https://www.fosspatents.com/ .... It's quite shocking that, in the presence of antitrust lawsuits and greatly increased legislative and regulatory scrutiny, Apple's doubling down on brazen monopoly rent seeking.
@herrmanndigital David Herrmann on x
There is no limit to the bullshit coming out of Apple. https://twitter.com/...
@bmorrissey Brian Morrissey on x
Toll booths are a great business https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Apple continues to build on its fastest growing business model, rent seeking (aka their Services business).
@antoniogm @antoniogm on x
Funny how fast Apple went from ‘ads are bad’ to' the greediest ads mfer on the planet.' This is Apple saying they're owed 30% of marketing budgets that flow through promoted posts. https://twitter.com/...
@pbannist Paul Bannister on x
We continue to watch the actions of a monopoly using its position to distort a market in a way that harms competitors and customers. Regulators do nothing. https://twitter.com/...
@robpegoraro Rob Pegoraro on x
So great when you can just annex 30% of somebody else's business by adding a paragraph to a policy document. https://twitter.com/...
@ryancarson Ryan Carson on x
Important NFT-related update to Apple's App Store Review Guidelines https://developer.apple.com/ ... 1/ “Apps may use in-app purchase to sell and sell services related to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), such as minting, listing, and transferring. Apps may allow users to view their ow…
@rich_kirk Rich Kirk on x
Gangster move by Apple. Doesn't affect brands much but sure does squeeze the social platforms. https://twitter.com/...
@axelroark @axelroark on x
Wtf. Apple has become the Big Brother that their iconic commercial rallied against. https://twitter.com/...
@ilanstrauss Ilan Strauss on x
@PatrickMcGee_ @eric_seufert Probably a nice chunk of change from Bumble, Tinder, Hinge, etc. I'd guess around $200 million from the App Store.
@neilkatz Neil Katz on x
@ballmatthew Apple has done the nearly impossible. Execute raw monopoly power while maintaining a highly trusted premium brand. Has anyone else ever pulled it off?
@mkobach Matthew Kobach on x
This is what actual anti-competitive behavior looks like. But we'd rather worry about Amazon buying a vacuum and the 4th largest and 6th largest grocery stores merging. https://twitter.com/...
@patrickmcgee_ Patrick McGee on x
@eric_seufert If anyone has revenue estimates please get in touch with me. I doubt this is big, but it's meaningful in other ways
@slightlylate Alex Russell on x
This would be disgusting if Apple were still an underdog laptop shop. As the dominant smartphone maker in the US and many other geos, it's a gobsmacking shakedown. https://twitter.com/...
@kylebrussell Kyle Russell on x
They find the privacy invasion unethical, yet will take their cut all the same https://twitter.com/...
@sjhvalueinvest @sjhvalueinvest on x
@ballmatthew why is this any more controversial than a normal purchase? buying ads isn't that different to other digital services/content
@jameshercher James on x
The Cook era reminds me of Uber under Kalanick in a lot of ways, where misrepresentation and bad-faith facades presented to diff stakeholders was an actual business protocol. Not like someone going loose but how the company operated.
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
Apple: We hate advertising. It's bad. And it exploits you. Also Apple: We'll make 30% on that exploitation, thank you very much
@edbott Ed Bott on x
Tim Cook gonna use The 70% Solution to keep Apple growing. https://twitter.com/...
@hammer_mt Mike Taylor on x
Kneecapping Facebook wasn't enough, they're going for the kill. https://twitter.com/...
@kyleorl Kyle Orland on x
Being in full control of the only way to load apps onto a major computing platform sounds like a pretty good deal https://twitter.com/...
@yangcliu Yang on x
Apple has already notified major partners of this as early as February this year. They did it subtly by saying “well, you can go ahead and sell NFTs, but you'll need to pay us 27%” With that said, the hassle of implementing a 3rd party is not worth 3% of extra margin https://twit…
@mattnavarra Matt Navarra on x
Apple twisting the knife in Meta's ad business https://twitter.com/...
@liorshvo Lior Shvo on x
Wait.. whatttt?? So every social media post boost will considered an in-app purchase 😵‍💫 Very bad for Meta https://twitter.com/...
@seyitaylor @seyitaylor on x
Apple is about to start a war. https://twitter.com/...
@enricpedro @enricpedro on x
@PatrickMcGee_ @eric_seufert Anyone “serious” about their ad spend will still rely on their laptop rather than phone to boost their SM. Small-time influencers boosting their posts thought... Inflation is hitting even harder this year 😂
@fwiz Ryan Wyatt on x
I think these moves by Apple are so absurdly aggressive, on top of the already aggressive App Store policy, that ultimately the courts will rule in favor of the people. They're dancing with the devil moving in this direction. 🤷🏼‍♂️ https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Apple has finally bitten the bullet and stated that they deserve 30% of ad revenue of iOS apps. They're starting with asking for the revenue from “promote post” features in apps like Twitter. Another blow to Elon's plan to turn Twitter's business around. https://t.co/cOXnpuPedm
@ballmatthew Matthew Ball on x
@SJHvalueinvest Well, among other things, it's very different to introduce or enforce 14 years after the App Store versus day one
@repkenbuck Rep. Ken Buck on x
In a functioning market, prices go down, not up. https://twitter.com/...
@metacriticcap @metacriticcap on x
I boosted a post recently and literally felt like an IAP. Seems fair to ask it from $META. https://twitter.com/...
@peterpham Peter Pham on x
wow, is this true? if so, twitter & others, just lost 30% of their rev going thru apple https://twitter.com/...
@vgr Venkatesh Rao on x
Apple takes evil crown from Google huh https://twitter.com/...
@profcarroll David Carroll on x
Business is cutthroat and competitive and I always thought that was the point and what business people admire about it. https://twitter.com/...
@phillcurley Phil Curley on x
Short FB https://twitter.com/...
@mikarv Michael Veale on x
Apple inadvertently keeping the dream of the open web alive by forcing companies there to escape the sheer greed in their app ecosystem. https://twitter.com/...
@waxpancake Andy Baio on x
Apple just killed all token-gated functionality on iOS. https://twitter.com/...
@simondlr Simon de la Rouviere on x
This is interesting. Has there been prominent examples of apps circumventing Apple's payment systems through NFTs (eg, buy NFT elsewhere and that's “proof of payment” to access features)? https://twitter.com/...
@wongmjane Jane Manchun Wong on x
Apple updated their App Store Review Guideline to prohibit NFT as a means to bypass Apple's in-app purchase mechanism > Apps may allow users to view their own NFTs, provided that NFT ownership does not unlock features or functionality within the app https://developer.apple.com/ .…
@jasonlbaptiste @jasonlbaptiste on x
Who does this hurt the most? Game developers embracing Web3, NFTs, crypto, etc. Why would Apple focus on this? Follow the money. 60-70% of Apple's App Store revenue comes from gaming. Web3 threatens that.
@doctorow Cory Doctorow on x
In other words, Apple specifically *prohibits* developers from offering tools that displease other companies' shareholders, no matter whether this pleases Apple *customers*: https://developer.apple.com/ ... 55/
@nickstatt Nick Statt on x
Apple now has rules explicitly okay'ing NFTs within iOS apps but only if it gets the App Store cut on sales. https://developer.apple.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@collins_belton Collins Belton on x
Interesting. Seems like Apple is potentially aiming to cut off Reddit and other using NFTs as a workaround for their store. As much as I love Apple, I'm bigger on antitrust, and this is just building the case against some of their App Store approaches imo. https://twitter.com/...
@mattdesl Matt DesLauriers on x
What fresh hell is this, Apple? 🤨 To paraphrase: if your app uses an open web protocol to provide extra features for your users, it will be removed from the App Store as it jeopardizes the walled garden and 30% fees. The timing with Reddit's recent sale is curious. https://twitte…
@jameshercher James on x
Apple has reached a point of being a bad-faith operator. Is anyone even gonna bother to explain what makes this an in-app purchase? Obvi it's the 30% cut, but I mean cmon it just is contempt for the truth at this point. https://twitter.com/...
@pt Parker on x
Permissionless innovation, as long as you don't cross the biggest corporation in the world. https://twitter.com/...
@seyitaylor @seyitaylor on x
the FTC is asleep at the wheel. The European regulators are asleep at the wheel. https://twitter.com/...
@jasonlbaptiste @jasonlbaptiste on x
Make no mistake about it - Apple is now the largest threat to Web3 with their most recent App Store Guidelines that they published today. Apps Are Bullshit Part Deux. A thread below on the implications this has for Web3 & Crypto 🧵
@219_eth @219_eth on x
So we're clear, NFTs are so useless that apple has to ban some of their use-cases because competition, which proves they're useless https://twitter.com/...
@mdudas Mike Dudas on x
sorry @apple, i will not be token-gated from your @AppStore my pronoun is “digital collectible” https://developer.apple.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@smdiehl Stephen Diehl on x
All of those alleged “use cases” for NFTs (which were all bullshit anyways) just got banned from the App Store. This web3 nonsense is over. https://9to5mac.com/...
@riddle245 @riddle245 on x
Damn so any of those promoted posts presumably Apple take their cut. Between this, first time price increases and the NFT news this shows Apple isn't playing around and wants their money https://twitter.com/...
@sandeepnailwal @sandeepnailwal on x
Meanwhile @Apple trying to strengthen walls of their garden. They can do it right now cuz Web3 users are still small in number. Once we reach a critical mass, users are going to put massive pressure on Apple to either enable more freedom or GTFO https://decrypt.co/...
@nicksdjohnson @nicksdjohnson on x
It continues to baffle me that anyone accords the manufacturer this much control over their own device. Can anyone argue with a straight face that this protects anything other than Apple's bottom line? https://twitter.com/...
@downingark Frank Downing on x
Apple cracking down on NFT use inside apps is a prime example of how easy it is to forget the power central gatekeepers have today Going to be hard for NFTs to provide more functionality if the if only apps that can support them need to be sideloaded onto an Android phone https:/…
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
This is entirely internally consistent, but, of course, speaks to the standing issue that dates back to 2011. https://twitter.com/...

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