- WordPress is adding in-app purchases to its previously released iOS app, after Apple claimed it could make updates until the change was made, The Verge reported Friday.
- WordPress’ founder developer said in a tweet Friday, Apple banned developers from making updates to the app, unless it started allowing users to purchase domain names within the app – a service that does not currently include the app.
- The Verge reported that WordPress agreed, which means Apple is effectively pushing for a free app to monetize itself, allowing it to take a 30% commission on future purchases.
- Apple’s App Store policy, in particular its requirement that app developers use Apple’s payment systems and give the company a 30% cut, has frustrated developers for years – and recently lawmakers who say it’s monopolistic behavior.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
Apple’s battle with app developers intensified Friday after WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg claimed that the company excluded developers from making updates until adding in-app purchases to the free iOS app, The Verge reported.
“Given why @WordPress iOS updates were absent … we were locked out by the App Store. To re-send updates and bug fixes, we had to commit to support in-app purchases for .com plans,” Mullenweg tweets Friday.
“I know why this is problematic, open to suggestions,” he added.
Mullenweg’s tweet referred to Apple’s policy that app developers require the company’s own payment systems to be used for all purchases made on iOS apps, of which Apple then charges a 30% commission.
The policy has attracted the ire of developers for years, but the collapse of the WordPress app is still controversial because the app does not currently offer purchases, and there is no good reason why it should.
WordPress, the very popular website builder that makes powerful over a third of the internet, is open-source, which means that people do not pay to create websites with its use. WordPress.com, on the other hand, is a commercial entity that helps users create pages built on that open source software, and it makes money by selling domain names and other paid web hosting and management services.
WordPress.com is also developing the “WordPress” iOS app (which Apple took action on Friday), allowing users to create and manage WordPress-based sites for free – whether they pay WordPress.com for a premium domain name or not.
But because the app is being developed by the commercial entity, Apple decided that WordPress.com needed an option to purchase those premium domain names through the app – a cut of 30% of those purchases would then go to Apple.
An Apple spokesman told Business Insider that through App Store policy apps – including WordPress – that operate across multiple platforms, users can access a service on their iOS app that they have paid for on another platform (e.g. a website), but the developers then also have to offer you the option to purchase this service in the app.
That reasoning has angered the open source community, as the app itself is associated by users with the open-source WordPress project – not the paid services offered by WordPress.com – so they see it as unfair to the developers force to monetize a free app that is not designed to make money in the first place.
As Stratechery’s Ben Thompson put it in a tweet: “I’m wondering why Apple updates me on open source app updates for my open source website, because one user of that app sells domains.”
—Ben Thompson (@benthompson) 21 August 2020
Mullenweg told The Verge that WordPress has already agreed to meet Apple’s requirements and within 30 days will add in – app purchase options for the paid services offered by WordPress.com. A spokesman for Apple told Business Insider that the company has approved the latest WordPress update while they work on bringing the app.
Apple’s actions against WordPress come less than a week after Epic Games, the maker of the popular video game “Fortnite,” sued Apple and Google over the same in-app purchase policy (Google also collects 30% on purchases). The lawsuits have brought together several major app developers behind Epic, including Facebook, Spotify, and Match Group (which owns dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, Match, and OkCupid).
The legal challenges send both Apple and Google back into the antitrust spotlight just weeks after their CEOs were grilled during a congressional hearing by lawmakers who claimed the companies were unfairly using their size and market power to distort competition, and Apple CEO stated Tim Cook asks specific questions about how Apple treats developers.
