2

Barry Diller: Apple 'overcharged in a disgusting manner' on App Store

 2 years ago
source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/21/barry-diller-apple-overcharged-in-a-disgusting-manner-on-app-store.html
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.
Tech

Barry Diller says Apple ‘overcharged in a disgusting manner’ his companies on App Store

Published Fri, May 21 20219:20 AM EDTUpdated Fri, May 21 202111:02 AM EDT
Key Points
VIDEO04:19
Barry Diller: Apple’s App Store ‘overcharged in a disgusting manner’

Business mogul Barry Diller ripped into Apple on Friday over the fees it charges companies that have applications on the iPhone maker’s App Store.

In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the chairman of IAC and Expedia said his companies, and others like them, are “overcharged in a disgusting manner.”

For large companies, Apple takes a commission rate of 30% on in-app transactions; for certain smaller developers, the company recently lowered it to 15% after facing criticism.

Apple did not respond to a CNBC request for comment about Diller’s remarks, but it has steadfastly defended its policies, saying the money it gets from commission fees goes into maintaining and securing the App Store in a way that ultimately benefits app makers.

“The idea that they actually justify it by saying, ‘We spend all this money protecting our little App Store,’” Diller said. “I mean, it’s criminal. Well, it will be criminal.”

Diller’s comments came on the same day that Apple CEO Tim Cook is set to testify in an antirust case focused on the App Store brought by Epic Games, which makes the widely popular video game Fortnite.

Diller said Apple has a “quasi-monopoly” along with Alphabet’s Google, which runs the Google Play app store for Android devices.

Diller took aim at the way Apple forces in-app transactions to flow through the App Store’s payments system. Because Apple provides the payment system, he said, the best comparison for Apple is a credit card company, which typically takes around a 2% fee on transactions.

“It’s irrational, 30%. I mean, it makes no sense,” Diller said. 

“Match, little Match.com, pays $500 million a year to Apple to go through their store. Does that seem rational to you?” Diller said, referring to the dating company that Diller’s IAC spun out into a separate entity last year

Diller said Apple needs to be regulated in order to preserve competition, but he stressed he was not calling for the tech giant to be broken up. 

“I believe that, when you get to sufficient size, regulation is good. I grew up in the television business, which was regulated completely by the FCC and really tight regulations. Everybody, by the way, prospered to say the least,” said Diller, the former CEO of Fox and Paramount Pictures. 

“I think regulation, proper regulation, makes sense. I don’t want to bust them up. I don’t think that that’s such a smart idea, but when you have size and power, you’ve got to have regulation,” he said.

Diller also told CNBC he feels Netflix has an insurmountable advantage in streaming video, a business that’s seen an explosion of new entrants, including Disney+, Apple TV+ and NBCUniversal’s Peacock.

“Netflix won this several years ago, they’re the only ones who have the scale and momentum to keep making these somewhat lunatic investments in programming,” he said.


About Joyk


Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK