Netflix Is the Latest Company To Try Bypassing Apple's App Store (marketwatch.com)

Netflix is testing a way for users to register and pay for the streaming service while bypassing Apple's app store and hefty commission fees. MarketWatch reports: Netflix is looking into a new sign-up approach where users in some countries are no longer able to register for streaming service. They are being redirected to the mobile web version of the app and asked to enter payment details with Netflix directly. The test is running in 33 countries, not including the U.S., through the month of September, according to TechCrunch. This comes just months after Netflix in May made billing through Google Pay unavailable to new customers, though current subscribers that pay via Google Play can continue to do so until they cancel their accounts.

Comments

Re:HTML5?

[squiggleslash]

I think you're missing a few things.

HTML5 supports forms of any kind, just like all versions of HTML prior to version 5. This includes credit cards. That's how you buy things from, say, Amazon.com. There is no gatekeeping authority for the web that will ban your site because you accept credit cards and charge them directly.

Here's why that's important: Google and Apple both ban direct sales on their app stores. If you want either company to host an app in their app store, then any purchases made using the app have to go via Google or Apple, and in both cases they'll take 15% of the income.

So:

Android App: You are not allowed to process credit cards directly. Google takes 15%.
iPhone App: You are not allowed to process credit cards directly. Apple takes 15%.
HTML5 App: You can process credit cards directly. Visa/MC/etc takes 1-2.5%

Is there any reason for Netflix not to use HTML5? Yes. HTML5 is not ideal for, say, letting users save offline copies of movies (there's probably a very ugly, unreliable, way to do it using the persistence API, but...) but otherwise - not really. All modern smartphones are capable of running HTML5 with all the DRM badness Netflix needs, for example.