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Apple kills App Store affiliate program

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Axisofweevils

Axisofweevils

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Oct 25, 2017
1,841
twostraws_2018-Aug-01-768x566.jpg


Basically when sites recommended a game (or app), they used to get a cut from the purchase. This is no longer happening and the iOS review sites are panicking.

Moments ago, Apple announced that they're killing the affiliate program, citing the improved discovery offered by the new App Store. (Music, books, movies, and TV remain.) It's hard to read this in any other way than "We went from seeing a microscopic amount of value in third party editorial to, we now see no value." I genuinely have no idea what TouchArcade is going to do. Through thick and thin, and every curveball the industry threw at us, we always had App Store affiliate revenue- Which makes a lot of sense as we drive a ton of purchases for Apple. I don't know how the takeaway from this move can be seen as anything other than Apple extending a massive middle finger to sites like TouchArcade, AppShopper, and many others who have spent the last decade evangelizing the App Store and iOS gaming- Particularly on the same day they announced record breaking earnings of $53.3 billion and a net quarterly profit of $11.5 billion.
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https://toucharcade.com/2018/08/01/...m-and-i-have-no-idea-what-we-are-going-to-do/
 
Border

Border

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,859
Was the affiliate program enough to really sustain a professional review site? The platform is so incredibly driven by free software and free-to-play games, I can't imagine you could stake out much of a living on affiliate links.
 
badcrumble

badcrumble

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,732
Sucks that they're doing this. I can't imagine it was costing Apple much, and frankly review sites (and such) were doing a much better job of highlighting the best apps than the App Store itself was.
 
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