Never short of trolls, billionaire Elon Musk would love to divert attention from Twitter’s poor results to Apple politics and its App Store, especially if he has to set up a paid subscription. Unsurprisingly, Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney is taking part in this new offensive.
Things have been bad for Twitter since the Elon Musk takeover. The social network has had to deal with waves of layoffs and resignations weakening its ability to react quickly to problems. And there are problems, especially with the cessation of advertising campaigns from many brands including Apple.
Twitter loses millions of dollars
The media NPR, the US public radio, reports that 50 of the top 100 ad buyers on Twitter have stopped campaigning on the platform. Collectively, “ they had invested more than $750 million by 2022 ” on Twitter. Seven more companies have drastically reduced their advertising budgets. These represented more than 255 million in revenue since 2020 for Twitter.
Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Among all these companies, there is one that Elon Musk wanted to highlight for his fans: Apple. Between a few occasions of fake news or conspiracy theory of the American alt-right, the billionaire published tweets against the apple brand ” Apple has pretty much stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America? “.
We can understand that Elon Musk is upset by the situation. According to the washington post, Apple was the biggest earner in the first quarter of 2022 with $48 million in advertising budget. A massive investment that once again demonstrates the importance of Twitter.
Twitter soon banned from the App Store?
Behind the end of publicity from Apple, there is another big fear on the part of Elon Musk: the disappearance of Twitter from the App Store on the iPhone and iPad. Several analysts have shared this theory in recent days this clash in the making.
Twitter wants to launch a large-scale Twitter Blue subscription that will lead Apple and Google to receive a 30% commission as they do on each in-app payment and subscription purchased from their platforms.
It is this tension that led Elon Musk to hypothesize the creation of a smartphone as an alternative to the iPhone and Android. Things have been ramping up since November 28 when Elon Musk tweeted that Apple was now threatening to remove the Twitter app from its App Store. Information to be taken with a grain of salt, Apple has not confirmed this threat.
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
This follows the publication of several murderous tweets where Elon Musk questioned Apple’s policy and its management of freedom of expression on its platform. The Apple brand is known for being uncompromising with certain content on its App Store.
But behind big words on freedom of expression, Elon Musk reveals in other tweets the real reasons for his new revolt against Apple: the 30% commission on subscriptions.
Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store? https://t.co/LGkPZ4EYcz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
A commission that he considers to be “secret” although it was publicly announced by Apple at a conference and discussed on numerous occasions by several players such as Spotify or Epic Games.
Support from Epic Games
Without too much surprise, Tim Sweeney, the boss of Epic Games, came to public support for Elon Musk on Twitter by sharing several tweets and suddenly becoming a “defender” of freedom of expression.
We’ll see. Apple blocked Fortnite within a few hours of Epic defying their policy. Would they nuke Twitter? Spotify? Facebook? Netflix? At what point does the whole rotten structure collapse?
— Possibly Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) November 28, 2022
Epic Games has been in a dispute for more than a year with Apple over the issue of the 30% commission on the Fortnite game. The video game publisher would like to integrate its own payment system independent of Apple and calls into question the strength of the brand on its own ecosystem. An update to the game had incorporated such a payment system, leading to Fortnite’s outright banishment from the App Store.
In this conflict between Epic Games and Apple, the latter has emerged rather victorious so far, but tensions around the policy of its App Store are increasing. By attacking it, Elon Musk is attacking bigger than him, but could create a media effect around this new adventure.
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