Comparing the fees of 50 popular apps, how much more expensive is Apple than Android?

"Apple tax", I think most of you have heard of it.

The so-called "Apple tax" means that Apple will take a cut of the revenue from the digital services of apps in the App Store.

Like buying a paid game and running a big membership of Bilibili, the money has to go through Apple, and after being divided into a certain percentage, it will be given to the developer - the whole process is like Apple collecting taxes from developers in the iOS ecosystem.

But most people may not notice that the price of the same service, iOS and Android, may be different.

For example, the earthquake warning app that has attracted attention recently has to pay 10 yuan on iOS to enable the warning function, while the Android side is free.

In addition, there have been many media reports before, and video membership on iOS is more expensive than Android.

Therefore, Lao Hu has always been very curious about which apps iPhone users spend more money on than Android users among the apps we use more often.

We've found 48 popular apps, including 50 paid services, including some of the most representative paid apps in different fields.

These apps can be divided into five categories.

They are social live streaming, audio-visual, book FM, tools and games, and 10 representative services are selected in each category.

To explain in advance, in order to ensure the rigor and fairness of this comparison, we try to choose the apps of the two platforms to log in to the same account, and the price of purchasing membership varies greatly between different accounts due to different payment habits.

The selected membership package is also based on annual cards as much as possible, ensuring that the two platforms are the same package.

The first is that many people pay the most frequently and are also the most perceptually perceived social live streams.

Whether you buy batteries at station B, or buy virtual currency on platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, Douyu, and Huya, at the same price, the iOS side is only 70% of the Android side.

To give the anchor a captain at station B, iOS users will spend 60 yuan more, and on Douyin to send a 1200 diamond sports car to the anchor, the price for Android users is 120 yuan, and iOS users will cost 171 yuan.

If I want to charge an animal world blogger recently, iOS is more expensive than Android in the higher price levels.

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QQ members and Weibo members are the same, and the members on the iOS side are 8 or 10 yuan more expensive than the Android side.

Only Zhihu's salt selection members, the two are the same price.

Overall, 9 out of 10 paid services for these 9 apps are more expensive on iOS, which is a bit surprising to me.

Another frequent payment for is book FM apps.

On the Seven Cats and Tomato novels, which are mainly free of reading fees, iOS members are more expensive than Android.

The 12-month membership on the Seven Cats App on iOS is 188 yuan, and the Android side is 136 yuan after subtracting coupons, even if you don't count coupons, the price of 178 yuan is cheaper.

Tomato Novel has an ad-free annual membership of 218 yuan on iOS, and 30 yuan cheaper on Android.

Looking at the starting point reading and Jinjiang Literature City, which focus on paid online reading, the annual membership of the starting point reading iOS side does not have a continuous annual subscription service, only 118 yuan for 12 months, and Android is also at this price.

Jinjiang Literature City does not have membership services, and the payment scenario for reading online articles is more paid according to the number of words in the chapter, that is, the virtual currency of the recharge platform.

Jinjiang coins in Jinjiang Literature City, Android 1 yuan can buy 100 Jinjiang coins, and only a 1% handling fee will be deducted when WeChat payment. But on iOS, the handling fee is as high as 40%, and 1 yuan is only 60% of Jinjiang coins.

If you read a novel in Jinjiang Literature City, iOS users will lose money.

Only WeChat Reading, Palm Reading and Getting, iOS and Android are the same price.

There are three apps for FM broadcasting, Himalaya and Dragonfly FM at the same price on both platforms.

Litchi FM does not have a membership service, and the virtual currency used in the paid content is 1 yuan for 10 yuan on Android, 30% less on iOS, and only 7 yuan for 1 yuan.

Therefore, 60% of the price of book broadcasting apps is the same, and 40% of iOS is more expensive than Android, which is not low.

In terms of tool applications, Baidu Netdisk, WPS, Tencent Docs, Wenxin Yiyan 4.0, XMind and Straight Flush are the same prices on both platforms.

The all-round scanner king is more special, the discount on the iOS side is only 118 yuan for half a year, and 258 yuan for one year after expiration, while the Android side is 138 yuan for the first year and 258 yuan after expiration.

In the first year, iOS was nearly double the cost of Android by 109 yuan, which is an exaggeration.

There is no annual pass on the iOS side of Tomato ToDo, and if it is a season card, it is 9.9 yuan cheaper for Android than 12 yuan on iOS.

There is no difference between Meitu Tools, the Meitu App and Nomo, and the annual membership of the two platforms.

However, Meitu's virtual currency, Meidou, can buy 100 for 10 yuan for Android and only 70 for iOS.

Let's take a look at the video membership service that may be the most people are willing to pay.

In several commonly used video platforms, as well as QQ and Soda, the price is currently the same for Android and iOS.

Netease Cloud's vinyl VIP, the iOS side has a continuous annual subscription of 108 yuan, and Android is 20 yuan cheaper, 88 yuan, they all give away other App season cards, but there are more options on the iOS side.

Migu Music is also more expensive on iOS, at 98 yuan, and 89 yuan on Android.

Finally, let's take a look at the game. We have selected the most popular mobile games on the market, including games with a relatively high average age of users, such as chess and cards.

The game is better than expected.

In addition to JJ Dou Landlord, when the landlord recharges 3 yuan, Android has 50% more virtual coins than iOS. Whether it is Tencent, NetEase Games, or Genshin Impact, the prices of the two platforms can be consistent.

GAMING APPS ARE CONSISTENT BECAUSE GAME DEVELOPERS ARE MORE WILLING TO FIGHT IT.

We'll talk about the story of game developer miHoYo facing hard apples later.

In the end, after statistics, among the 50 paid projects, 19 paid services have more discounts on Android, accounting for 38%.

Among these 19 items, 9 items are for live social broadcasting, especially in live broadcast scenarios where users pay for high-frequency.

For the 6 live streaming apps, the amount of virtual currency exchanged by iOS is only 70% of that of Android at the same value, and 30% is deducted.

If you're familiar with the Apple Tax, you'll already know that the Apple Tax is the so-called toll fee, which takes a 30% commission from app payments.

If you're an iOS user, there's a good chance you're spending more money on the same service than an Android user without realizing it.

The key to all of this is the Apple tax.

How lucrative is the apple tax?

According to Apple's latest financial report released in early May, in the first quarter of 2024, Apple's revenue fell by 4% overall, but service revenue rose by 14% against the trend, which is the fastest growing revenue and Apple's second largest source of revenue, accounting for 26%.

What's even more terrifying is the profit of the service business, Apple's products are expensive enough, the gross profit margin of the product is 36.6%, and the gross profit margin of the service has reached 74.6%.

Apple's service business accounts for only 26% of its revenue, but its profit contributes 42%.

On June 1 last year, Apple's official website quoted a report published by Analysis Group, which specifically pointed out that the revenue of digital goods and services obtained by developers worldwide in 2022 was $104 billion.

In China, this revenue in 2022 will be about 21 billion US dollars, and according to the proportion of Sensor Tower, with a growth rate of 11.3% in Apple's revenue, Apple will also earn 48.2 billion yuan through Apple tax in China in 2023.

How high is that number?

iQIYI's annual revenue in 2023 will be 31.9 billion yuan, station B will be 22.5 billion yuan, and the output value of China's online literature will just exceed 40 billion yuan in 2023, and the scale of the online music market will be 32.2 billion yuan.

Apple's tax revenue in China alone easily surpasses the output value of many large Internet companies and even individual cultural industries.

And this is a 30% commission, which is miserable for many businesses that rely on digital services for revenue.

In 2020, Epic Games, a sensational American game developer, introduced players to pay directly with Epic in the game Fortnite.

Epic offers players two options: App Store Pay or Epic Direct Pay, where players can pay a lower amount for in-game items.

Apple directly removed "Fortnite" on the grounds of violating the rules, and then the two sides began a lawsuit, which continues to this day.

This is indeed a bit of a matter of whether the user lives or dies, and I Apple doesn't care if you users want to spend more money.

Just this past May 1st, news came out that Douyin's overseas version of Tik Tok has begun a small-scale test, guiding users to buy gold coins for live streaming tips through the official Tik Tok website in the app, and the extra gold coins are also part of the Apple tax.

If this option is widely promoted, Tik Tok is very likely to be sanctioned by Apple and forced to be removed from the shelves.

Overseas, companies and developers have dared to stand up to Apple and directly sue for reforms, attracting regulatory attention from antitrust regulators and local courts.

In China, there are indeed very few cases of hardness with Apple, and miHoYo once fought with it.

miHoYo has also tried to circumvent Apple's IAP (in-app purchases).

In August last year, miHoYo guided users to make in-game purchases through the official website in the official community MiYo Club, but the app was taken off the shelves.

In 2019, the Lilac Doctor app also had a conflict with Apple over whether the online consultation fee was applicable to IAP, resulting in the inability to update apps that use third-party payments.

Why do Epic, Spotify, miHoYo, and Tik Tok dare to go it alone?

They have successes and failures, but if there are no companies that dare to stand up, there will never be wars, and there will be no reforms and changes in the history of business development.

Chinese entrepreneurs and developers have been facing the same dilemma for a long time.

In China, the confrontation between developers and Apple has ended in failure in the matter of fighting for third-party download licenses and the possibility of third-party payment.

Not to mention enjoying a more favorable apple tax rate.

In the US, Apple revised its developer guidelines in January to reduce commission rates to 27% and allow for bypassing Apple third-party payments.

In the European Union, the Digital Markets Act was introduced, the commission rate was reduced to 17%, and the official website or third-party downloads were allowed, and third-party payments were also allowed.

In South Korea, the Telecommunications Business Act reduced commissions to 26% and forced Apple to open third-party payments.

In the Netherlands, regulators have fined Apple 11 times in a row, totaling 55 million euros, forcing Apple to open third-party payments to dating apps.

So far, in China, Apple's second-largest market in terms of revenue, that is, there is no third-party payment, and the commission charged is also the highest among major regions, and developers need to pay higher operating costs than other regions in the Apple ecosystem.

Similarly, there is the MFi certification fee, in addition to the $99 membership fee and the $2,000 certification fee, the manufacturer has to pay $3 chip cost and 20%-25% commission for each data cable.

For a data cable, Apple can eventually extract about 30 yuan, and the highest-selling MFi data cable on JD.com costs 49 yuan.

Yes, you heard it right, compared to Apple's 30 yuan, the merchant only took 19 yuan.

In addition to logistics, warehousing, publicity, and other expenses, manufacturers can only earn a fraction of Apple's income by producing an Apple MFi-certified data cable.

In 1984, Apple released the classic commercial "1984" at the Super Bowl, in which an athlete swung a hammer and smashed the "big brother" on the screen, heralding Apple's dominance of IBM.

And now, Apple has also become a ruler in the app ecosystem, and the former dragon slayer boy has finally lived as he hated.