The CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, accused Apple’s App Store policy of destroying dreams and ruining entrepreneurship, specifically referring to Apple’s policy of imposing a 30 percent commission on in-app purchases for developers earning more than $1 million a year.
Pavel Durov wrote on his Telegram channel that Apple has informed the messaging platform that it will not be able to allow content creators to sell using third-party payment methods. telegram allows content creators to provide access to channels or individual posts through a paywall (a blocking system that prevents non-paying users from viewing web content), and users can pay through third-party payment, rather than Apple’s in-app purchase system.
Durov said Apple was “not satisfied that content creators could monetize without paying 30 percent commissions” and that Telegram had no choice but to disable paid posts and channels on its iOS app. how a multi-trillion dollar monopoly can abuse its dominant market position at the expense of millions of users trying to monetize their own content.”
Durov accused Apple of destroying dreams and crushing entrepreneurs with its App Store commission, a tax that requires a 15 or 30 percent commission from Apple on most in-app purchases. durov called on regulators in the EU, India and around the world to “start taking action.
Durov’s full statement reads as follows.
"Some content creators have started using third-party payment bots to sell access to individual posts on their Telegram channels. This way, content creators can receive close to 100% of their users' payments, which is great. Unfortunately, we have heard from Apple that they are unhappy that content creators are turning a profit without paying 30% tax to Apple. Since Apple has complete control over its ecosystem, we have no choice but to disable such paid posts on iOS devices. This is just another example of how a multi-trillion dollar monopoly can abuse its dominant market position at the expense of millions of users trying to monetize their own content. I hope regulators in the EU, India and elsewhere start taking action before Apple destroys more dreams and crushes more entrepreneurs with a tax higher than the value-added tax imposed by any government. In the meantime, we at Telegram will work to provide creators with powerful and easy-to-use tools to commercialize their content - outside of Apple's restrictive ecosystem."
This isn’t the first time Durov has criticized Apple, as the CEO slammed Apple’s “obscure” App Store rules in August this year.
