Apps have been redirecting users away from Apple’s App Store and towards their own website when paying up for a subscription to avoid up to 30 percent cuts. Now, the company which has been losing subscribers for two straight quarters, Netflix, has started doing the same.
The update was first reported by 9to5Mac, and according to the publication, the Netflix app uses a new iOS API for reader applications that redirects users to the Netflix website to complete a subscription, instead of finalizing it via the app. The new option seems to be part of a global update for iOS and iPadOS versions of the app.
Users on the iOS or iPadOS Netflix app can now tap on the “subscribe” button on the landing page, and the app will show a prompt saying that “you’re about to leave the app and go to an external website.”
Any accounts or purchases made outside of this app will be managed by the developer “Netflix.” Your App Store account, stored payment methods, and related features, such as subscription management and refund requests, will not be available. Apple is not responsible for the privacy or security of transactions made with this developer.
Subscribing to Netflix directly on its website, and not via the Apple App Store, allows the streamer to save the 30 percent App Store commission that it would normally have to pay. And in the dire economic climate today, paired with Netflix losing subscribers for two quarters in a row, every penny that the company can save would go a long way.
In related news, Apple recently announced that the App Store stopped nearly $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2021.
Image credit: 9to5Mac
Source: 9to5Mac
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