Antitrust! The App Fair Alliance speaks again, hoping that Apple will build a more open iOS platform

Last year, a number of companies led by "Fortnite" developers Epic Games, Spotify Technology, and Match Group (the parent company of Tinder) formed a new "The Coalition for App Fairness" (The Coalition for App Fairness), with the purpose of joining forces to resist The behavior of "Apple taxing consumers and combating innovation" jointly promotes the freedom of choice and fair competition in the App ecosystem, and improves the conditions for application development and distribution.

Recently, they applied to Apple again, hoping that it can build a more open iOS platform with better review processes, external payments, and Windows-like application distribution.

1. The "App Fair Alliance" dedicated to breaking Apple's monopoly

As we all know, the App Store is the only way Apple allows consumers to download apps to devices such as iPhones. In addition, Apple charges 15% to 30% commissions for apps that use its in-app payment system (App), and has established extensive rules that can only appear in its App Store if these rules are followed. These practices of Apple have continuously incurred criticism and legal complaints from app developers and app developers.

In August last year, some app developers who were dissatisfied with Apple's App Store's operating model co-founded the non-profit organization "The Coalition for App Fairness" (The Coalition for App Fairness), which officially challenged the App Store's operating model.

According to the organization’s website, it is an "independent non-profit organization established by industry-leading companies to promote freedom of choice and fair competition in the entire application ecosystem." Its members "hope every application developer All have equal opportunities to innovate and engage in commercial activities, without being subject to harsh policies, unfair taxation or monopoly control."

Although this description sounds very general and can be applied to other application markets, such as Google Play, the organization's current actions mainly revolve around Apple and the App Store.

The App Fair Alliance hopes to build a more open iOS platform with better review processes, external payments, and Windows-like application distribution. The alliance mainly targets random/unreasonable application submission rejections, fraudulent applications that earn millions of dollars, and behaviors that favor high-income earners.

In addition to the aforementioned Epic Games, Spotify Technology, and Match Group, other members of the organization include smaller companies such as Basecamp, Blix, Blockchain.com, Deezer, and Tile, as well as developers from Europe, including European publishers. Council (European Publisher Council), News Media Europe (News Media Europe) and Protonmail, etc.

According to members of the organization, more than 400 membership applications have been received.

The App Fair Alliance also listed 10 "App Store Principles", including "No developer should be required to pay unfair, unreasonable or discriminatory fees or revenue sharing."

2. Changes, problems, trends, where will mobile applications go?

At the end of last year, Apple launched the "small business program" for small and medium-sized developers, reducing the commission rate for small and medium-sized developers from 30% to 15%. Last month, Google also announced that developers will be in Google every year. The commission rate for the first $1 million in revenue in the Play App Store has been reduced to 15%.

For application developers or developers, this may not necessarily increase the amount of income on the books, but it is undoubtedly a positive signal.

As one of the most representative innovations in the mobile Internet era, the application store economy has not only created tens of millions of high-quality apps for consumers, but also provided developers around the world with a A viable business model has also provided substantial returns for Apple, Google, and a number of Android channels in the domestic market.

Digital, mobile, and social media have penetrated and integrated into people's lives worldwide, and have become an indispensable part. With the support of such a huge base, the mobile application market will definitely have greater potential and space for exploration, mining, and development in the future. However, the current changes and existing problems require the entire ecosystem to come up with solutions.

Further reading:
"2020 China Mobile Application Ecology and Developer Status Survey Report" (download attached)