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1/ Apparently Apple wants to build a “News Aggregator” and wants a 50% rake / revenue share, and won’t share subscriber reading habits or email info.
2/ The big publishers may be chaffing today. Rightly so, 50% rake is a rake too far. Apple charges 50%, because they believe they can (just like the AppStore). They are mistaken.
I wrote about platforms from a pricing perspective here: stratelogical.com/2017/11/platfo…
I wrote about platforms from a pricing perspective here: stratelogical.com/2017/11/platfo…
3/ In AppStore’s case, a competing platform with lower rake/rev share is unlikely to cause users to shift (as long as Apple’s hardware continues to attract users). The presumption is Apple’s continuing iOS rules that does not allow competing AppStores within iOS, only outside iOS 
4/ In the news aggregator case, a competing news aggregator within iOS with lower rake can exist (just like how Spotify exists in iOS even though Apple Music exists). It does not exist today, but if there’s a business here with lower rev share, then it will come about.
5/ Apple’s proposed model is more Spotify (pay for content on a per use basis) than a Netflix (pay for content one time no matter how many times it is used). The right approach is the latter. As you get more users, you can spread your costs over all your users.
6/ So, does the opportunity for a new aggregator à la “Netflix for News” exist?
I believe it does. Just not with the 50% model that Apple might get away with initially but won’t last.
I believe it does. Just not with the 50% model that Apple might get away with initially but won’t last.
