This whole debate weirdly assumes 30% is just greed when it covers hosting, fraud protection, customer support infrastructure, and yes, curation that keeps malware off my phone — if you think you can replicate all that cheaper, go build your own app store.
The data on what happens when you fragment payment systems on platforms is not pretty — security incidents go up, user trust goes down, and ultimately the little indie developers everyone claims to be protecting get hurt most because they can't vet payment partners the way big studios can.
Nobody forced these developers to build on someone else's platform, full stop. You want the audience Apple spent decades cultivating? Then yeah, you pay for access to it.
I actually work in mobile dev and the app store's payment system is honestly one less headache I have to deal with — fraud protection, refunds, currency conversion all just handled. Forcing in competing processors sounds great until your users start getting scammed by shady third-party checkout flows.
Apple and Google built these entire ecosystems from scratch — the security infrastructure, the review process, the trust users have — and now regulators want to just hand that over to competitors for free? That's not fairness, that's theft dressed up as policy.
Platforms can still charge for distribution, security reviews, and all the actual services they provide — nobody's saying they work for free. But bundling payment processing into that and calling it non-negotiable is just a racket dressed up in a terms of service.
Competition in payment processing would immediately drive down fees, and those savings get passed to consumers — lower app prices, cheaper subscriptions, better deals. This isn't just a developer issue, it's literally everyone's problem.
I switched payment processors on my e-commerce site and saved thousands overnight, but on iOS I'm just stuck handing Apple a third of my revenue with zero say in the matter. That's not a partnership, that's a hostage situation.
The whole 'platform deserves its cut' argument falls apart when you realize there's literally no competing platform to go to — that's the definition of a monopoly, and monopolies don't get to set their own rules unchallenged.
Apple and Google didn't build my app, I did — so why are they entitled to 30% of every dollar my customers spend? Forcing open payment systems is just basic fairness for developers who actually do the work.