Apple will reduce the App Store transaction rake: good for 98% of developers

News on November 19th, Apple yesterday announced a new developer plan. The plan stated that starting from January 1, 2021, all developers who sell digital goods and services in the App Store will have an annual revenue of 1 million. Those under USD will enjoy a commission rate reduced to 15%. The official standards listed by

are: Existing developers of

and all apps of the developers whose products are listed on the App Store for the first time have a total revenue of less than US$1 million in 2020. They can participate in this plan and enjoy reduced commissions Rate.

If the income of participating developers exceeds the USD 1 million limit, the remaining time of the year will be charged at the standard commission rate (ie 30%).

If the developer’s business income does not reach US$1 million in the next calendar year, they can re-qualify for 15% commission in the following year.

Apple has maintained a 30% App Store commission rate. This commission is also commonly known as the "Apple tax". It has been one of Apple’s main sources of software service revenue for many years (it has also become a contradiction between Apple and some application developers. source).

And the reason why this plan is announced now, according to Apple’s official statement, is to reduce the pressure on small application developers and developers in the context of the pandemic and global economic challenges, so that they have more resources for Invest in and develop business in the App Store ecosystem.

Of course, the benefit of this plan is mainly small and medium-sized developers with limited revenue. Those large-scale application developers with revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars still have to pay 30% of the transaction fee for projects involving in-app fees.

According to the estimation of Sensor Tower, a foreign research institution, about 98% of application developers will benefit from this. The revenue generated by these developers last year accounted for about 5% of the total revenue of the App Store.