Elon Musk is talking about the Apple tax again. In a post on Wednesday, the billionaire said he “will speak with @tim_cook” to see if the Apple CEO would adjust the 30 percent commission the company takes on in-app purchases.
Right now, Apple takes a 30 percent cut on all in-app purchases on iOS, including the subscriptions sold by creators through Twitter, or X. Musk says he wants to change this so that Apple only takes a 30 percent commission on the portion of the payout kept by Twitter.
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Musk adds that Twitter is also changing the way it takes cuts from creators. Instead of taking 10 percent of subscription revenue from creators after 12 months, Musk says Twitter will only take 10 percent once payouts exceed $100,000. Under this new model, Twitter will still take nothing for the first 12 months.
Last year, Musk likened Apple’s fees to a “hidden 30% tax on the Internet” and delayed the rollout of Twitter Blue on iOS to avoid paying Apple’s fees.
Around the same time, Musk also said that Apple had threatened to “withhold” Twitter from the App Store but, after going to visit Cook at Apple’s HQ, came away saying it was some sort of misunderstanding. Will Apple adjust its policy to appease the billionaire? It’s stared down others, like Epic Games and Fortnite, for example, but it has at times carved out exemptions for apps like Netflix, Spotify, and Kindle to do things like linking to the web for users to create an account (although even that move followed a lawsuit by developers and closed an investigation by Japanese regulators).