Telegram says iPhone user should be concerned about App Store’s 30% tax

Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, in a public post, has placed out seven reasons why “every iPhone user should be concerned about the App Store’s 30% tax”.

Telegram has led the European Commission over Apple’s long-contended 30 percent commission cut for listing developer apps on Apple App Store, reports verified.

The purposes listed out by Pavel Durov directed at iPhone users involved higher prices, censorship, lack of privacy, delays in-app updates, and fewer apps.

“The situation is so bad that one would require Apple’s 30% cut to be unsustainable. Yet it’s been throughout for more than 10 years and is still there,” Durov said.

Durov stated that because of the 30 percent commission, iPhone users have to spend extra for apps on the app store despite already having to pay extra for their iPhone than the maker’s cost. He further told that Apple censors a lot of the content from the apps and also limits the developers from reaching them to users.

Durov also told that an Apple user’s privacy is at stake as the user must first build an Apple account and log in using it to install every app. This makes it simpler for Apple to keep track of the users as every single app, and every push notification is attached to the user’s account.

Durov further called Apple’s review team “notoriously inefficient” because of who the updated apps reach its user slower than they really should. He complained about Apple’s performance in hiring new moderators despite charging a tax from third-party apps.

Other reasons Durov classified out were lesser apps, apps with more ads, and worse apps.

Durov said that on top of the 30 percent commission, app developers have to pay government taxes such as VAT (~20%), wages, research, servers, marketing.

Instead of producing a profit, these apps go bankrupt, telegram founder Durov said as a result of which many great apps don’t survive. Durov said the app developers rely on ads for their companies to remain. Durov also noted that the apps are not well researched, as developers are not left with any funds for the same.

“We shouldn’t sit idly and let Apple’s lobbyists and PR agents do their thing. It is up to us users and inventors to defend our rights and to stop monopolists from stealing our money.

They may believe they have fooled us into a deadlock because we’ve already bought an essential mass of their devices and created a critical mass of apps for them. But we shouldn’t be giving them a free ride any longer,” Durov wrote in a blog post.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, in the US Congressional AntiTrust meeting, stated, “We treat every developer the same. We have clear and transparent rules.” He also noted that a vast majority of apps, around 84 percent do not pay commission to Apple.

Apple app store’s commission policy is deemed unfair by many because with the commission; there is also competition from Apple’s apps.