On Monday, tech giant, Apple announced that it paid App Store developers almost $60 billion in 2021, or $260 billion total since the launch of the App Store back in 2008. This figure indicates that App Store sales continue to increase at a rapid clip. When compared, the company stated that in 2019 that Apple had paid App Store developers a total of $155 billion since 2008.
In 2020 Apple Paid $45 Billion to App Store Developers
Moreover, at the end of 2020, Apple had paid $200 billion, an upsurge of $45 billion. The latest statistic came as part of a more comprehensive announcement from Apple implied to show acceleration for its services business, which is a critical signal for investors and analysts, who like to see Apple not only earning money from trading hardware but also via selling services and apps to its consumers, such as app downloads.
Read more: Apple Becomes World’s First 3 Trillion Dollar Company
Apple Has Revised its Commission Structure in Response to Legal Challenges
Furthermore, Apple’s payments to developers account for between 70% and 85% of Apple’s total gross from its App Store, which takes between 15% and 30% of sales from digital acquisitions made in apps. In the past, it’s been possible to back into a rough estimate for Apple’s App Store total earnings by considering the percentage of earnings Apple paid to the App Store developers. However, in the past year, the firm revised its commission structure several times in response to regulators and legal obstacles.
In particular, in 2021 Apple rolled out the Small Business Program, which cut fees to 15% for App Store developers who make under $1 million per year. According to calculations, as many as 98% of developers fall into this category, but it accounts for only a small fraction of total sales. Apple further launched a program for news apps that would cut their fees to 15% if they supplied content to Apple News in August. For all developers, Apple also only takes 15% of the second year of a subscription, instead of 30%.
Source: TechCrunch
