Apple charges an additional 30% charge for applications, in-app purchases as well as posts with boosted content.
Telegram President Pavel Durov announced late last Friday that the company was removing users from using paywalls for posts in order to force users to pay for access to content on iOS devices. It appears that Apple did not enjoy the thought of making payments to bots, without paying for the toll of trolls.
According to 9to5Mac the an analyst in social media Matt Navarra spotted Telegram users soliciting users to pay to see posts. Although Navarra initially suggested that Telegram had been testing ways for its platform to let users pay for postings, Durov made it clear that it was a the work of third-party payment bots.
The paywall bots concealed content behind a warning to pay a fee for access to the content. The blurred image was the hyperlink that took users to an external payment site. It’s difficult to determine whether the images of Navarra are connected to the bot called @donate that claims to generate an invoice for content using just a single button click. It is possible to use Telegram channels need to have more than 100 followers, however, channels can also be classified as private. The bot page is still available for Android devices.
It basically transformed telegramcninfo into a sort of OnlyFans-lite, with the profits go to its creators. Apple’s policies for apps charge 30% for paid applications, purchases in app and as of last week, even for promoted posts.
Durov appeared to commend users for their creativity and claimed that by using these platforms “content creators could earn nearly 100% of the amount their customers paid for and that was a huge benefit.” Durov also criticized Apple for making use of the company’s “trillion-dollar block” to exploit “its market power at the cost of millions of who want to profit from themselves with their content.”
Gizmodo approached Telegram but did not get a response on whether the platform has any plans to develop its own pay-for-post service. Apple did not respond immediately to a request to comment.
Durov has said that he is an ardent libertarian who’s played around with the concept of decentralized finance. So it’s not surprising that Durov is so opposed to Apple’s policies regarding apps. In the past Durov has complained about how Apple’s fees lead to greater prices, fewer apps available on iOS and increased ads. He’s also criticized Apple’s monopoly usage of its own app store to restrict content, which is governed by the terms of service for its apps.
Durov isn’t alone to declare Apple an unregulated Monopoly. The tech giant is among of the key participants in the ongoing antitrust fight as well as being spotted making fake grassroots campaigns to combat against the efforts to dismantle the tech giants.
Google also charges a fee of 30% for purchases made in-app, even though developers of apps last week received $90 million as settlement payments in an action against Google, the Play Store owner. Google has also agreed to allow apps that earn one million or less in annual fees kick the 15 percent back on in-app purchases.
Telegram claims to be an encryption application that is accessible to everyone and anyone However, this open-door policy has come with costs. Apple has been known to have previously mentioned Telegram and then temporarily removed it from the stores because it allowed instances of sexual abuse by children to continue unreported through the application.