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Twitter to Charge $11 Per Month for Twitter Blue on iPhone, $7 on Website

I don't see a problem with that - people buy stuff at gas-stations at inflated prices all the time, for convenience.

Same with buying a beer or wine in a restaurant, which is often the very same bottle you could buy at a supermarket for much, much less money.

A subscription via the AppStore is very convenient in that you only have to have your credit-card on-file at a single entity and receive a single receipt at the end of the month, consolidating all your active subscriptions.
 
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blizzerand said:
It's usually 2% compared to Apple's 30%. For twitter, might be less because they might get discounts for the bulk. Nonetheless, that comes down to $0.14. Also, for small businesses - Stripe and others offer 100% discount on the first x customers. I use it for my small eCommerce platform.
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Completely true!

But, that doesn't cover the costs that aren't per-transaction. The infrastructure and their e-commerce staff and maintenance. Obviously that gets diluted by the number of transactions, but there is no question the budget for the department handling e-commerce on a property as large as Twitter is in the many millions.

It can be argued that they would have to have their own e-commerce team regardless, they can't just rely 100% on Apple and Google app stores, and that is a totally valid point. But you can't ignore those costs, because those costs are already spoken for on the net they receive from Apple for in-app purchases.

And again, the 30% isn't the fee JUST for the transaction. It is how app developers pay for the whole package. The hosting, the distribution network, the customer support (for purchase related support), the developer tools. So many people seem to forget the 30% isn't they fee for payment processing. It is the fee for payment processing AND the fee for the whole App Store service.

So it isn't really fair to make it sound like it is a 2% vs 30% situation.

Free apps get a free ride (other than developer annual fee, of course) but in theory, good free apps benefit the whole store and therefore benefit everyone a little bit by raising the caliber of the store.
 
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When I came to the US for the first time I was surprised that the price tag on wares was NOT the final price, that additional charges would show up at the till.
Maybe this could be the 'solution' to App Store prices as well. List Twitter Blue as $7.99 in the store. Upon checkout add the Apple levy creating a checkout total of $11. Such it is clear to the buyer wat Elon gets and what Tim gets.
Let the consumer choose.
 
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tcgjeukens said:
When I came to the US for the first time I was surprised that the price tag on wares was NOT the final price, that additional charges would show up at the till.
Maybe this could be the 'solution' to App Store prices as well. List Twitter Blue as $7.99 in the store. Upon checkout add the Apple levy creating a checkout total of $11. Such it is clear to the buyer wat Elon gets and what Tim gets.
Let the consumer choose.
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I don’t think there’s any legal obligation for Apple to itemise its own costs and profit margin in the sticker price. I believe they would only need to itemise taxes.
 
Now that is a little pricey for a toxic woke filled social media platform. Had to leave that platform because all I was seeing was constant negativity and I do not think that's appropriate for mental health.
 
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There's definitely a gap in the market now for a simple 'twitter classic' version of twitter. A microblogging site to follow your favourite journalists, websites, games companies, etc. and get news from them. That's all millions of people use twitter for anyhow. If you want to have a debate with some moderation to ensure people play fair then there are plenty of websites with forums, or some of the smaller reddit communities.

But twitter at 10USD+ a month is insane. The value simply isn't there. If they degrade the free service to encourage folks to pay then I can see everyone moving to mastodon as soon as a 'simplified' client is launched. or Ex twitter staff will just start a direct rival to twitter, with occasional adverts, or adverts at the top of the feed.
 
Soon people will learn to never subscribe via the app store because prices are cheaper some where else. Its like the chocolate bar in the hotel's fridge.

30% cut on one time payment may be ok, 30% cut on continuous cut is not ok.

TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 said:
$11 per month? That’s a total rip-off. Not worth it. Sorry! Save yourself a headache.
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macsplusmacs said:
$11 bucks down. Only $44 billion to go eh Enron?

Lol. Eleven bucks to get a tidy bowl blue check mark.

The twitter Toilet bowl continues to swirl around and around.
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swester said:
Why would...anyone pay for this? What's the benefit again?
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I do not think you understand. Its not a blue check mark. Its a verification that the user is truly is who he says he is. Its great for public officials, organization, celebrities, ...etc so no one comes on Twitter and claim he is some one he is not.

Most average joe's won't be getting the blue checkmark


scheinderrob said:
i don't even know who to rant against anymore. incompetent elon or out of control apple. doesn't app store rules forbid you from charging extra for the same service on the site?
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i do not know, I believe its not. What they forbid is advertising its cheaper else where.
 
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kiken said:
I don’t understand why people think charging publishers is wrong. Keeping the App Store service isn’t free.
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I don't disagree, and I don't care for the whining about the 30%, but it was a lot easier to argue the above when the App Store didn't have ads all over it.
 
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What are people here on about. Most services are cheaper to signup on their own websites than as App Store Subscriptions.
 
tcgjeukens said:
When I came to the US for the first time I was surprised that the price tag on wares was NOT the final price, that additional charges would show up at the till.
Maybe this could be the 'solution' to App Store prices as well. List Twitter Blue as $7.99 in the store. Upon checkout add the Apple levy creating a checkout total of $11. Such it is clear to the buyer wat Elon gets and what Tim gets.
Let the consumer choose.
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It's exactly what apple is trying to hide. They won't let developer to even show some note about apple's cut. They doesn't pass such applications in App Store.
 
blazerunner said:
Makes sense given how Apple takes 30% for doing almost nothing.
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They don’t do almost nothing. It pays for staff, server maintenance, developer tools like Xcode for developers to be developed so you can have nice shiny apps, business expenses like electricity to run those server farms, security, I could go on and on but you get it right?
 
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MacBH928 said:
I do not think you understand. Its not a blue check mark. Its a verification that the user is truly is who he says he is. Its great for public officials, organization, celebrities, ...etc so no one comes on Twitter and claim he is some one he is not.

Most average joe's won't be getting the blue checkmark
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I think you haven't kept up with the Twitter news ;) Musk's initial plan was the exact opposite of what you said. (But who knows what it'll be like in the next iteration.)
 
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