Elon Musk has said he’s going to have a word with Apple boss Tim Cook about “adjusting” the 30% fee that Apple takes from in-app purchases made via its App Store.
Musk, CEO of Twitter (now X), said in a tweet on Wednesday that changing the way that it’s charged would maximize the amount that creators on Twitter would receive when followers subscribe to their exclusive content.
Specifically, he said he’d prefer it if Apple took 30% of the subscription fee that Twitter holds onto, rather than 30% of the entire subscription cost.
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It’s not the first time that Musk has made his feelings known about Apple’s 30% fee. In November last year, shortly after acquiring Twitter in a deal worth $44 billion, Musk tweeted that “app store fees are obviously too high due to the iOS/Android duopoly,” adding: “It is a hidden 30% tax on the internet.”
Cook ended up inviting Musk to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino to discuss this and a number of other matters, and despite having what Musk described as a “good conversation,” Apple’s 30% fee stayed well and truly in place.
That’s why few people expect Apple to change its position this time around, after all, the tech giant hardly has a reputation for flexibility when it comes to its App Store fees.
In the same tweet on Wednesday in which Musk mentioned that he’ll be contacting Cook, he also laid out an updated set of rules regarding monetization for Twitter creator accounts, which also receive a portion of ad revenue.
“While we had previously said that X would keep nothing for the 12 months, then 10%, we are amending that policy to X keeps nothing forever, until payout exceeds $100k, then 10%,” he wrote, adding that Twitter will not take a cut of any revenue made in the first 12 months.
