Elon Musk is delaying the launch of Twitter Blue again, this time against Apple
Twitter’s often-delayed paid review service is reportedly being postponed again, this time due to Elon Musk’s ongoing dispute with Apple and the way the Cupertino giant is handling in-app purchases.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk had announced that Twitter Blue would be relaunching next Friday, but the social media company is now delaying the launch as it tries to avoid Apple’s 30% cut in subscription revenue, reports have reported platformer, a newsletter by technology journalists Casey Newton and Zoe Schiffer.
Twitter’s offer to withhold Apple’s fee on iOS app store purchases coincides with Musk’s broadside against the iPhone maker, which he launched with a series of tweets this week. On Monday, Musk claimed Apple had removed most of its ads from Twitter and threatened to kick the social network out of the iOS app store.
When Twitter Blue finally launches, it’s expected to look different than Musk originally suggested. The service asks users to verify their phone number and costs $8, up a cent from the previous price of $7.99, reports platformer.
Neither Twitter nor Apple immediately responded to a request for comment. According to reports, Twitter no longer has a communications department. Apple has not publicly acknowledged Musk’s claims.
Musk has complained about the 30% fee as part of his escalating feud with Apple. “Did you know Apple has a secret 30% tax on anything you buy through its App Store?” Musk tweeted on Monday.
In the tech world, the fee is hardly a secret. In fact, Musk and Twitter are entering a protracted battle between smartphone app store operators like Apple and Google and software developers, including big names like Meta and Spotify, in an attempt to avoid Apple’s cut in subscription revenue.
Apple and Google take a percentage of all in-app purchases users make through their smartphone app stores, including subscriptions to services like Twitter Blue. The commission can be as high as 30%, although both Apple and Google have lowered the fee for smaller developers in recent years.
In 2020, Epic Games, the developers of the Fourteen days Video game, sued Apple, arguing that the 30% cut — and the iPhone maker’s rules to ensure developers pay for it — was anti-competitive.
In 2021, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple must allow developers to link to payment systems outside of the iOS app store, which would bypass the 30% cut, but stopped Apple from declaring a monopoly. Epic Games is appealing the verdict.
Twitter could try to send its users to payment services outside of the iOS app store, a tactic that could keep the 30 percent revenue cut in Twitter’s pocket rather than Apple’s.
Twitter Blue’s recent delay is the latest setback for the service, which has been delayed multiple times since its disastrous launch.
Musk originally launched the paid verification service on November 6th. Immediately, some Twitter Blue subscribers posed as the official accounts of companies like Eli Lilly, Lockheed Martin, and Nintendo, sharing jokes and false information. Twitter quickly shut down the service.
Musk didn’t provide clear details on when the service would return. The Twitter CEO first tweeted that the service would return on November 29, but has since said Twitter Blue would be “postponed indefinitely” and then launched on December 2.
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