Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

November 30-Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, declared war on Apple in a series of tweets on Monday, denouncing the so-called "Apple tax" charged by its app store. Musk's move is strongly supported by the CEO of music streaming giant Spotify and game developer Epic Games.

In these tweets, Musk criticized Apple's "three major crimes", including:

1) stop advertising on Twitter

2) threaten to remove Twitter from the Apple App Store

3) charge software developers up to 30% commission on in-app purchases (also known as apple tax) through the app store.

At the same time, Musk also tweeted a meme suggesting that he would rather "go to war" with Apple than pay "Apple tax".

Since acquiring Twitter last month, Mr Musk has unveiled plans to charge users who authenticate on the platform $8 a month to improve their profitability and avoid bankruptcy. It is clear that Apple's 30 per cent commission will have a big impact on Mr Musk's plans.

Musk's challenge to the "Apple tax" has won the support of many developers and chief executives of technology companies. Spotify has previously filed antitrust complaints in Europe, and Epic Games sued Apple in the United States in 2020.

Tim Sweeney, chief executive of Epic Games, tweeted that Apple "poses a threat to freedom around the world". Epic Games was removed from the app store after launching its own payment system to bypass the Apple tax and sued Apple for antitrust charges in 2020. But the judge's decision in 2021 appears to be in Apple's favor, and Epic Games has appealed.

Sweeney continued: "Apple has an almost illegal monopoly on the distribution of apps, and they use that monopoly to control speech in the United States." He also said in a follow-up tweet that Apple had blocked "Fortnite" in the app store. "will they use nuclear weapons against Twitter, Spotify, Facebook or Netflix?" he asked. "when will this decadent architecture collapse?"

Earlier this month, Epic Games filed a complaint with a three-judge federal appeals board to overturn parts of a lower court antitrust ruling that largely favors Apple and its app store payment business.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ike (Daniel Ek) is also quietly supporting Musk, retweeting the latter's tweets criticizing Apple. After Spotify filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in 2019, the European Commission has been investigating whether Apple, including its rules for app developers, violated the rules. Apple faces a fine of up to 10 per cent of its global turnover if it is convicted of violating EU antitrust laws.

Apple has said its commission income helps fund app censorship to ensure that consumers are not exposed to fraudulent, pornographic or privacy-infringing apps.

In response, Daniel Eke, chief executive of Spotify, wrote on Twitter last month: "Apple continues to put competitors at a disadvantage, and the impact is huge, whether for consumers, app developers, creators or publishers. If policy makers don't act, nothing will change."

Musk, who was buying Twitter at the time, also wrote in response to Ike's post that he was worried about it.

"Apple's threat to remove Twitter from its app store is a 'dangerous game' that could lead to another lawsuit," said Luke Suddards, an analyst at investment analyst Finimize. "We see that Musk has effectively used the relevant laws during his acquisition of Twitter, and it would not be surprising if he adopted the same strategy now."

Some analysts worry that a war with Apple could keep more users away from Twitter. "while Musk is trying to rekindle the ongoing war between Apple and developers, all these negative emotions will cause Twitter users to flee," said Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight. "people don't abandon their iPhone, they are used to signing up for different social services, and Twitter is no exception."

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