Elon Musk, who is intensifying his fight with Apple over fees charged to app developers, plans to charge iPhone owners an extra fee to sign up for Twitter Blue subscription service in the Apple App Store instead of online.
The Twitter boss has told some of his employees to pay a monthly subscription that anyone using an iPhone with a blue tick next to their name will have to pay more than $11 a month said – not $7 for web users. This was reported by Akborot.
Musk previously charged Twitter Blue subscribers $7.99 per month. At the time, the subscription service was only available through the Apple App Store.
The iPhone fee appears to exceed the 30% fee Apple charges developers for in-app purchases. Apple does not receive a portion of Twitter Blue subscriptions that can be accessed over the web.
Musk previously said he was willing to “go to war” with Apple rather than pay the commission. Twitter’s boss had previously accused the software giant of doing the same, threatening to remove Twitter from the App Store.
However, Musk tweeted last week that he cleared a misunderstanding with Apple CEO Tim Cook during a meeting at the iPhone maker’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.
Critics accused Apple of unfairly using its large market share to charge software developers a 30% commission.
It is estimated that Apple generates at least $20 billion a year in fees from its App Store.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg criticized Apple last week, saying, “Apple has singled itself out as the only company trying to unilaterally control what apps are on a device.”
“I don’t think it’s a sustainable or a good place to be,” said the Facebook founder This was reported by the New York Times at the DealBook Summit.
The Twitter Blue service will reportedly restart on Friday, but delays are possible.
The previous release of Twitter Blue proved embarrassing for the social media platform, as pranksters paid $8 to adopt fake identities of celebrities, major companies and other public figures – only to post inappropriate messages aimed at making them look bad.
One Twitter user paid for a verified account and named it after pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. A fake account then announced that the company was offering insulin for free to all customers — causing Lilly’s stock to plummet.
Musk noted that the updated Twitter Blue will include different colored badges that allow users to distinguish between government accounts, corporations and individuals.
Twitter is also said to be working on a plan to combat impersonators.
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