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Netflix Permanently Pulls iTunes Billing For New and Returning Users (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Netflix is further distancing itself from Apple's 15% iTunes tax bracket. Earlier this year, the streaming giant enabled iOS users in more than two dozen markets to bypass the iTunes payment method as part of an experiment. The company now tells VentureBeat that it has concluded the experiment and has incorporated the change globally. "We no longer support iTunes as a method of payment for new members," a Netflix spokesperson told VentureBeat. Existing members, however, can continue to use iTunes as a method of payment, the spokesperson added. Additionally, the support rep added that customers who are rejoining Netflix using an iOS device, after having canceled payment for at least one month, also won't be able to use iTunes billing. The move, which will allow Netflix to keep all proceeds from its new paying iPhone and iPad customers, underscores the tension between developers and the marquee distributors of mobile apps -- Apple and Google.
Did Netflix charge an extra 15% to iTunes Netflix subscribers or did they eat the cost of the Apple tax?
Wouldn't it be great if hardware manufacturers and digital content creators were separate businesses?
The biggest issue within iOS relative to this change is that, if you do not accept Apple's tax on the digital good/subscription (which is why the percentage is lower; subscriptions get a reduced percentage), then Apple prevents you from using your own billing systems and Apple also blocks your app from telling users how to become subscribers, such as by linking to your website and using a browser.
That's the risk that Netflix has been weighing: do they have the clout to get users to simply -- out of likely frustration -- go to netflix.com via the iOS device's browser and subscribe, or did they need to accept the 15% cut that Apple takes, thereby making it a seamless experience that never has to leave the app or require the user to figure things out themselves.
It sounds like they finally decided that they had the clout. I can only hope that more businesses do this and stop giving into Apple's egregious system (and I say this as an iPhone 8 using and Apple Watch 4 wearing user).