Elon Musk, in an overnight series of tweets that began with a direct appeal to Apple CEO Tim Cook, claimed that Apple had removed almost all advertising on the platform and “without explanation” threatened to remove Twitter from the App Store.
- He also attacked the app store’s 30 percent commission and accused the corporation of stifling free speech. “This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech doesn’t exist even in the United States, all that lies ahead of us is tyranny,” Musk summarized.
- From a corporate perspective, a public conflict, especially between companies of this scale, is always bad news, writes Bloomberg. First of all, Apple is one of the largest, if not the largest, advertisers on the platform, with a budget of well over $100 million a year. At the same time, by Musk’s own admission, the departure of other advertisers (Pfizer, General Mills) has already “significantly reduced” the revenue.
- Secondly, it is the biggest promotion channel of Twitter itself. If the platform really gets kicked out of the App Store, it will lose potential access to more than 1.5 billion mobile devices worldwide.
- Musk has an argument, too: the fearless free speech advocate’s position is a way to stimulate audience growth (which the billionaire constantly brags about). And Apple has long been disliked by software companies, regulators, and lawmakers alike for its 30% commission.
What’s next?
Apple has not yet commented on the Twitter owner’s statements, but will apparently act in corporate logic, distancing itself from the increasingly chaotic platform. “Elon Musk is a risk, and Apple won’t take it on itself,” former Bank of America media executive Lou Pascalis told Bloomberg.
- Practice shows that fighting with Apple is bad for business. The clearest example is Epic Games, which tried to bypass the App Store commission. The company’s main game Fortnite was blocked within hours and removed from the app store. A high-profile lawsuit followed, which Epic did not win. And the new approach to privacy in iOS was a major factor in Facebook’s falling revenue and capitalization.
- But it’s possible that Musk could use the war with Apple to build an audience and promote the transition from Twitter’s advertising model to a paid subscription model (that very “blue tick” for $7.99 a month). The billionaire has already promised to publish files on the Twitter platform with a collection of “facts about the suppression of free speech.
- The new monetization will also incorporate the hype model of consumption that took out his Tesla in the early days: social networks are already waiting for a “tesla phone” with Twitter, independent of both Apple and Google stores. This part of the audience will be pleased to escape Apple’s “digital slavery,” of which the company was accused by Telegram founder Pavel Durov.
- Finally, politics cannot be discounted, as The Washington Post notes: an attack on Apple from the perspective of free speech is fully consistent with the aspirations of the Republican wing of the U.S. Congress that is suspicious of bigtech.
