Following the path of many others before it, Patreon – the collaborative platform dedicated to creators – is therefore forced to bend to Apple’s directives.
Every in-app purchase deserves its 30% tax
The latter in fact obliges it to pay a commission on purchases integrated into its application, under penalty of being removed from the App Store. With Epic Games having set a famous precedent, there is no doubt: Cupertino will take action in the event of non-execution!
Starting in November 2024, new memberships on Patreon will be subject to the 30% commission, which applies to all purchases made via an app downloaded from the App Store. It requires the use of its in-app purchasing system and removes all other billing systems from Patreon on iOS, or it will be removed from the App Store.
The end of an economic model
As a reminder, Patreon is a participatory support platform, which offers Internet users the opportunity to help a creatorr (artist, influencer…) by donating a small amount per month (this can be 1 or 2 euros, or even more). To do this, users subscribe to a monthly subscription via the Patreon payment system, which is itself subject to 8 or 10% commission from the company.
Overall, it is therefore a digital patronage system based on donations. In practice, users still receive something – principle of equivalent exchange – often early or privileged access to content, such as detailed tutorials.
Or Apple wants to put an end to this, or rather demands its share, namely its 30% tax.. She considers that these are simply in-app purchases and that there is no need to make an exception. But this decision risks upsetting Patreon’s economic model, and perhaps increasing the price of subscriptions or impacting the amount of donations received…
In practice, Patreon will therefore reduce its available subscription offers. Starting this fall, only monthly subscriptions will be managed through Apple’s system. An option will be built in to allow creators to automatically increase their prices in the iOS app compared to those made from a web browser or via the Android app. Ultimately, it will become more attractive for users and creators to simply switch from a browser and bypass the App Store.
