1/ One thing a lot of people forget in the App Store take rate discussion is that Stripe only operates in 42 countries, doesn’t automatically collect/pay sales tax, doesn’t handle local compliance, etc. There are Stripe apps you can pay to handle some of that, but not all.
2/ The App Store operates in 166 countries, collects and pays all taxes, handles local compliance, etc. Calculating the overlap would be a PITA, but after a quick look at my revenue this year, I’d guess I earn at least 5% more because of all the additional App Store countries.
3/ China alone (where Stripe doesn’t operate) is 1.5% of my revenue and has been higher in the past. So, the 15% I’ll be paying Apple in 2021 really feels more like 10% because they help me make an additional 5% with support for all those additional countries.
4/ It’s disingenuous to say that Apple is _just_ a payment processor and should charge the same as Stripe. At a bare minimum, you’d need Stripe + a tax SaaS + additional help with taxes/compliance. And even then you’d get 42 countries instead of 166.
5/ As anyone who has been following me for years knows, I’m not shy about bashing Apple when I think they’re wrong. But I just don’t think the 30% is that bad of a deal for everything Apple does not just with payments, but creating the App Store and the rest of the platform.
6/ Apple creating the App Store Small Business Program wasn’t resetting to a more fair rate and only doing it for small developers, it was a subsidy/stimulus plan for small developers (for PR, antitrust breathing room, spurring innovation, encouraging entrepreneurship, etc)
7/ I’ve argued for years that conversion/dunning/etc. when Apple already has a customer’s credit card & allows them to pay with their face/fingerprint more than makes up for the 30% (developers who have tested it have confirmed that IAPs really do convert way better than Stripe)
8/ There are so many other things that are more meaningful to innovation and the future of mobile apps than paying Apple a cut (15% or 30%). I’m working with @jeiting on a post to suggest some of those next steps Apple could take to regulate itself before governments do.
(One quick caveat, there are businesses that don’t sell (near) zero marginal cost goods and services that just can’t operate on the App Store even at 15% and this does nothing to address those cases. That’s one of the things we’ll be writing about.)
9/ Oh geez, this was the worst kind of hot take. I completely misunderstood Stripe’s availability. You can operate your business from 42 countries, but payments can be accepted worldwide (though surely there are exceptions, can’t find a full list). 🥚➡️👱🏼♂️
10/ Well, maybe it wasn’t so bad of a take. Stripe does support China, but there are a lot of hoops to jump through and Stripe passes the buck on complying with the Alipay TOS. I imagine there are other caveats like this that have to be addressed country by country. 
11/ There’s SaaS to handle software sales globally. Anyone know what PayPro Global actually costs? Their web page gives a great outline of all the stuff Apple does on behalf of developers. If you reduce the App Store take rate to just payments, at least compare to this not Stripe
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