Facebook is launching a new event feature that allows page owners and event organizers to create paid online events to try to fill the gap created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the social media giant announced on Friday.
But there’s one catch: the platform will earn those pages and businesses less on iOS, because Facebook says Apple is refusing its standard App Store fees or letting the company use its own in-app payment processing system that it says would help the organizers of the event keep more of the money they generate.
“We asked Apple to reduce its 30% App Store tax or offer our Facebook Pay so that we could absorb all costs for companies fighting during COVID-19. Unfortunately, they have both our requests and [small businesses] only 70% of their hard-earned income will be paid, ”said Fiji Simo, head of Facebook’s chief app, in a statement.
“To support small businesses and makers, Facebook will not be collecting fees from paid online events for next year,” Simo adds. “For transactions on the web, and on Android in countries where we’ve run Facebook Pay, small businesses will keep 100% of the revenue they generate from paid online events.” Simo, in a call with reporters on Friday, further stated that this policy would remain in effect “while communities remain close to the pandemic.”
As a result of the Apple fee, Facebook says it plans to label online event purchases on iOS with a new message reading, “Apple takes 30% of these purchases.” The company submitted this change to Apple for review., But it shared a suggested image of the order stream on its blog post announcing the new feature:
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Image: Facebook
“With this case, in particular, we think it’s really important to be transparent when people support small businesses wherever their money goes,” Simo said in a call with reporters in response to a question from The edge about the proposed Apple label. “When people pay $ 20 for an online event, they think it’s all going to a local business when 30% goes to a nearly $ 2 trillion business – that’s relevant information for people to have. That we thought it was an important thing to call out in the context of supporting small businesses. ”
The new feature, which exists as part of the main Facebook app, is designed for page owners to “create an online event, set a price, promote the event, collect payment and host the event, all in one place, “Simo explains in the blog post. The goal is to help small businesses and those in the entertainment and live event space try to start making money again after the devastating economic effects of COVID-19 and the subsequent closures of music venues, event spaces, and other venues for public gatherings.
The post says that Facebook saw live broadcasts of pages double in June of this year compared to that time a year earlier. The company says that sites in 20 countries around the world can now start loading for online events starting today, and that it has a qualifying list here.
This is just the second harsh condemnation from Apple that we saw in the last week of Facebook. It also contributes to a growing swell of anti-App Store sentiment from tech and gaming industry sentiments about Apple’s App Store policies and its rules banning or restricting how gaming companies can offer cloud services and custom in-app payment options . Apple Epic Games’ Deleted Yesterday Fortnite from the App Store after Epic implemented its own in-app payment processing system, allowing Epic to file an anti-trust case against the company (and Google for doing the same).
Earlier this month, Facebook fired Apple for forcing it to remove a major component of its new Facebook Gaming app – the ability to play mini-games within the app powered by its browser-based Instant Games platform – to get the software approved in the App Store. Apple never gave a formal statement. Instead, the company pointed out The edge and others to a section of the App Store guidelines, section 4.7, which dictates how developers can implement HTML5-based games in their apps. It appears that Facebook’s use of in-app mini-games somehow violates these rules, although it’s not clear which one in particular.
“Even on the main Facebook app and Messenger, we have been forced for years to bury Instant Games on iOS,” Facebook Gaming CEO Vivek Sharma said in a statement. The edge at the time. “This is shared pain in the gaming industry, which ultimately makes players and devs and innovation on mobile for other types of formats, such as cloud games, hurts.”
Facebook says it has even tried to address the section of the App Store guidelines under a new rule introduced by Apple at this year’s WWDC, following a rather public dustup with software company Basecamp over its new e-mail postal service Hey. Instead, Facebook says Apple gave it the cold shoulder. “We even invoked the directive during the new app review process announced at WWDC,” a Facebook spokesman said. The edge. “We have not received a response.”
Update August 14, 3:39 PM ET: Quotes added by Facebook app chief Fiji Simo from a conversation with reporters conducted on Friday afternoon.
