Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has announced the company has shut down paid posts on iOS due to a complaint from Apple, and that it is now working on ways for creators to bypass ‘Apple’s restrictive ecosystem’ (via Engadget).
Users of the encrypted messaging service are looking into ways to make more money from the platform. One method users have tried is using third-party payment bots to sell paid individual posts on their channels.
Creators were receiving nearly the full sum of what their fans or subscribers paid for one of their posts, noted Durov.
“Unfortunately, we received word from Apple that they were not happy with content creators monetizing their efforts without paying a 30 percent tax to Apple,” he wrote. “Since Apple has complete control over its ecosystem, we had no alternative but to disable such paid posts on iOS devices.”
Durov referred to the “30 percent tax” that Apple takes from in-app payments and app purchases. Apple “abuses its market dominance at the expense of millions of users who are trying to monetize their own content,” he continued.
Telegram’s update has been stuck in Apple’s “review” for two weeks, without any word from the App Store.
If Telegram, one of the top 10 most popular apps globally, gets this treatment from Apple, imagine the difficulties faced by smaller app developers.https://t.co/c0l6OHUbwy
— Pavel Durov (@durov)
The Telegram CEO noted that his team is working on ways to provide creators with easy-to-use options to make money from their content.
Telegram introduced paid features in June with a $4.99 per month Premium subscription. That opens up larger file upload sizes, faster downloads, the ability to follow many more channels, and the option to pin chats.
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To avoid getting transactions cut to 70% (paying Apple 30%) they move to a model where they will get the 100% of nothing … interesting… and meanwhile creators are hostages of the smartest people in the planet.