this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2026
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/59469059

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[–] dan@upvote.au 135 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (10 children)

Why does Apple feel they deserve a 30% cut? In cases like this, Apple aren't providing any value at all.

  • Apple aren't providing the content - the creator is.
  • Apple aren't providing a platform for the content - Patreon is.
  • Apple aren't providing a platform for discovery - people aren't finding Patreon creators solely via Apple products.

Sure, Apple are providing a payments platform, but why do they deserve 10x what Stripe charges?

[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 23 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

They were sued by Epic Games for the same shit and Epic won on one count which allows them to put links to alternative payment methods and go around Apple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games_v._Apple

[–] kurmudgeon@lemmy.world 12 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

So couldn't patreon just argue in court that this precedent was already set with epic?

[–] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

That is how case law works, yes.

[–] kurmudgeon@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

I'm just wondering then why Apple would even push this if a president was already set with Epic. What a bunch of greedy corporate bastards.

[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

I'm not a lawyer but I think they could.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago

Because apple is a "premium" product, so you have to pay a "premium" fee for normal stuff so it feels like you're using "premium" services

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

gotta get the money to bribe trump somehow

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 points 4 hours ago

Just pass on the cost of the corruption to the consumer, as usual. It's the Corruption Tax.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 3 points 4 hours ago

Apple also gets money from developers who use their platform already. That should be it.

Apple will already bully small developers off their platform while giving bigger companies first-class treatment.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 59 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

It's just platform-milking, just like Meetup.com's latest antics; there isn't deep analysis needed to everything, haha. "Capitalism" is totally a legitimate answer despite being just one word.

[–] Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz 13 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Meetup is now owned by Bending Spoons, who have also enshittified wetransfer, Evernote, eventbrite, AOL, vimeo. They buy decent products that never exploded to ipo status, fire everyone and milk the rest for whatever they can charge.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Why does one company need to own meetup and eventbrite?

Is that not a monopoly? How does it not violate any anti-trust laws?

Edit to add: how long before we see a fediverse events app?

[–] blitzen@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago
[–] kautau@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

Ironic that they named themselves on a plot about breaking out of a cycle of control, classic Palantir or Anduril vibes too of like “haha movies good where stonks”

[–] JamieDub86@piefed.social 3 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

You got a link to what meetup has been up to?

[–] artyom@piefed.social 2 points 3 hours ago

I dunno, I left a couple years ago after they stopped providing .ics, started spamming our members that we were paying for, and then refused to provide us with the emails of our members.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

I, too, am interested in hearing about these supposed shenanigans.

[–] hayvan@piefed.world 8 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Deserving is irrelevant under Capitalism. It's only whether they can get away with it or not?

[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

And fixing this problem is going to require a similar attitude from the people tired of this.

We need to rep our interests as ruthlessly and as sophisticatedly as our enemies.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 1 points 3 hours ago

It's not about what they deserve, it's about what they want.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 12 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

They provide the payment system. They also mandate it.

If you subscribe on the website you don't have to pay the extra. It's only for subscriptions initiated via the app

[–] tabular@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

An app you can only get via the Apple store, mandated by Apple?

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Most likely the app exists just because people don't know how to type patreon.com into the browser anymore

Full functionality is available on the web AFAIK. And if you subscribe on the web, there's no Apple cut, but you can still use the app to see said content.

It's an inconvenience, but a super easy one to get past and not exclusive to Patreon so a trick any Apple users should know anyway if they enjoy paying subscriptions for things (Netflix, Spotify, whatever)

[–] tabular@lemmy.world 1 points 13 minutes ago

I too assume the Patreon App doesn't do anything that cannot be done on their web page. I can imagine there good dev reasons but also bad incentives to make it an app.

I am biased against Apple as I like being the on in control of my hardware/software.. but is it a stretch to say Apple influence their users to use apps instead of webpages (so they can rentseek a cut)?

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 7 hours ago

You can make the subscription through the website on the phone just as well and not pay the cut to apple.

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah. But why would you use the app? I personally didn’t know there even was an app.

[–] tabular@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe it offers something better than on whatever web browser Apple mandates, or maybe no reason but user preference.

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 2 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

There’s no way that the Patreon app isn’t more than a dolled up web view. If people make stupid decisions I guess the fallout is on them.

[–] tabular@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago

Sadly the fallout is usually on everyone - eventually companies will copy a shady practice as it's been shown they can get away with it until no other option exists. It falls on the technologically literate to call out when others are being mistreated or they can suffer too.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 1 points 3 hours ago

No, the fallout is on creators.

[–] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I have the Android app, but I can download podcast episodes on WiFi to save on mobile data. That's as good a reason as any to use the app.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 0 points 3 hours ago

You could also use any other podcast app.

[–] vogi@piefed.social 5 points 8 hours ago

This sums the problem up fairly nicely I think. I do wonder with Apple being a gatekeeper by EUs own definition and unfair sales terms supposed to be history with the Digital Markets Act in place this can't go through, right?!?! at least not in the EU... assuming they do their job.

[–] Gargantuan@piefed.social 2 points 6 hours ago

I suspect this has more to do with closing a loophole than going after Patreon and only Patreon.

People don’t have to subscribe through the app. and Patreon don’t have to offer that functionality in the App. Apple don’t have Patreon locked in to their platform.