Affiliates termination
Affiliates no longer earn commission on app sales; other types of sale unaffected
Significant changes to Apple's affiliates program.
Apple has announced that from October 1, its affiliate program will no longer apply to iOS and Mac apps and in–app content. All other content types — music (including Apple Music subscriptions), movies, books, and TV — remain in the affiliate program. The change will impact most on small independent websites that review mobile games and other apps, some of which have depended on receiving a commission on purchases made through their affiliate links. App developers will also no longer be able to earn that little bit extra when they refer buyers to the App Store who then purchase their apps.
Apple says the change comes about following the launch of the new App Store on iOS and macOS “and their increased methods of app discovery.” In other words, Apple thinks third parties have nothing to contribute to users finding the apps they want to buy. Apple would rather just curate and promote everything itself.
“On social media,” website Mashable reports, “many people are outraged.” For independent review sites such as AppShopper, TouchArcade, and AppAdvice, the change threatens their viability. Such sites have felt embattled for the past year, since May 2017, when Apple cut the commission that affiliates received from 7% to just 2.5%. Amazon’s Associate program, by contrast, pays affiliates up to 10% of the sale price of a product sold via an affiliate referral.
Some small game and app developers are concerned because they are skeptical of Apple’s “methods of app discovery.” Only apps that are already top sellers are highlighted, they say, while large developers are favored still further by Apple’s Search Ads program, introduced in 2016, which lets developers pay for prominent placement in app search results. With many apps selling for just a few dollars, even a tiny return from sending customers to the App Store helps small developers recoup the costs of the promotional activity that sends them there.
According to industry analyst Sensor Tower, consumer spending on the App Store reached an estimated $22.6bn worldwide in the first six months of 2018, a rise of 26.8% compared to the same period last year. App Store mobile game spending reached $16.3bn in the half–year, a rise of 15.1% year-over-year.