At this point, I rather just have my money going to Apple Arcade. At least I'm getting some entertainment and value compared to looking at 24/7 drama.
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Twitter to Charge $11 Per Month for Twitter Blue on iPhone, $7 on Website
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Honestly, i don’t know why these companies just don’t go down the Netflix or Amazon model and make/ask the user to signup for any paid sub via the WEBSITE or via SAFARI on the iPhone. Just because apple makes it seamless with apple pay integration doesn’t mean a company has to USE it.
Let them download the app, then for the users who are going to purchase a paid sub, pop the browser, let them auto fill login VIA SAFARI on the twitter website, take their payment info (at this point I THINK one can also offer Apple Pay integration or any other form of payment integration) and then take them back to the app, refresh and paid sub will be enabled. Easy peasy and no 30% fee to apple.
Let them download the app, then for the users who are going to purchase a paid sub, pop the browser, let them auto fill login VIA SAFARI on the twitter website, take their payment info (at this point I THINK one can also offer Apple Pay integration or any other form of payment integration) and then take them back to the app, refresh and paid sub will be enabled. Easy peasy and no 30% fee to apple.
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Because Musk is still lamely trying to float the "30% cut = antitrust" stuff. And it's also guaranteed that Musk will increase the $7.99 price later on after trying to get some PR from the price differential.
The reality is like you say: large consumer oriented apps can easily get their customers to pay via the internet. Spotify is the perfect example. They complained to the EU that the 30% cut was competitively unfair then later provided data that showed 99% of their iOS subscribers were paying via the internet and Apple didn't get any type of cut.
They need 60 million people to sign up for this in order to break even and pay the debt due soon. That's not happening. Elon is in a very very bad spot.
technically I don’t think it’s anywhere near that amount of users required. At just 8$ PER MONTH ($96/yr) , per user Twitter would need only about 12.5M users to cover the 1.2B in ANNUAL INTEREST due on the held debt that is on Twitters balance sheet. 12.5 M users is ONLY about 5% of twitters daily active users. DAU. Of the roughly 250M DAU, I would put ~ 10% at some hard core. CO’s, Governments, Celebrities, influencers, journalists, etc.. not that average joe/Jane that follows ppl. IF Twitter survives, they will HAVE to maintain their presence and ultimately pay up.
There is nothing “coming due” next year (okay, maybe some of Twitters prior 400-600M debt might be), but most lenders did agree to hold the debt and not syndicate it out until sometime into 2023. Normally, they would shop it out and sell it off and take the cash and put it into ANOTHER deal. Frankly, I think the bankers are playing a game at this point and trying to push down the debt (it was recently selling in small amounts at ~ 60 cents on the dollar) and if anyone has ANY confidence in twitter going forward or that Elon will continue to dip into his relatively shrinking plie of net worth (he has already leveraged or put up a LOT of his Tesla, Spacex ownership for Spacex, boring co, starlink, etc)., then buying it at those levels could prove valuable. (It was yielding over ~22% at those valuations)
Twitter historically grossed about 4-5B, netting something in either a 500m loss to at most 1B “gain”, but now that there are ~65% fewer employees, and probably even less discretionary spend, depending on how much/many advertising $$ they actually lose, their operational cash flow model (net of debt service) COULD be looking more manageable.
Doesn't getting Twitter Blue add extra features? Not that I can remember what they are offhand, as they're almost certainly not worth $8 a month (or $11) 😅
Musk owes $1 billion a year in interest alone on the loan he took to buy Twitter.
Plus everything is in one place. I go into Subscriptions and see which are still active and decide to keep or cancel. Won't forget about it outside of iOS and get an unexpected charge
This is not in defense of Apple, it's about misplaced blame. For instance, Apple wasn't charging you 39.99, LinkedIn (Microsoft) was. Apple didn't raise the price, Microsoft did. Because Microsoft didn't want to pay 30% - even though Microsoft would charge Apple 30% for the exact same thing if sold in their Xbox Marketplace.
Of course they won't let developers show their cut. How many retail stores sell packages that say, "Hey, this retailer is charging you to buy this here"? Instead, they have an MSRP - which is typically more than what the retailer sells it for. And honestly, you would hate that practice even more if it were in App Stores.
Mastodon will never reach the level of Twitter the way it is now. I do admire the way it works but without a central user database your entire account will die when your subscribed server dies.
Honestly, my opinion is that this type of thing should be a public service like NPR or PBS were. An actual town square, and require ACTUAL user verification with a form of ID, and not have sponsors to answer to.
They take 30% for the first year and 15% every year after.
Also, I just checked and it's $11.99 on the site, and $12.99 through the app.
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This is beyond silly, simply paying for the privilege of being the product. SMH, I will never understand.
Convenience, not wanting to give Twitter your credit card details, not knowing it is cheaper elsewhere, etc etc.