- Recently, the European Union obliges the most popular web services to reveal their statistics
- Apple has just unveiled its own, with the notable figure of 101 million monthly active users on the App Store for iOS
- This is just the beginning of long changes to the platform
With 101 million MAUs (monthly active users) on the old continent, the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch is the only one that will ultimately have to comply with the DSA – the acronym for the brand new Digital Services Act. Established by the European Union to limit the power of the giants of the net and offer more freedom to Internet users, it is only applicable after a certain threshold and also aims to prevent hate speech from abounding on the net. And to find out the names of the companies with whom to tighten the screw, the leaders of our continent have asked all the GAFAMs to reveal their attendance statistics.
Also at Cupertino, we then learn that the App Store for iPad is apparently its second most visited service concerned, with no less than 23 million MAUs. The Mac App Store is third with 6 million, followed by the App Store for tvOS, the Apple TV operating system, with 1 million MAUs. The figures for the Apple TV+ on-demand streaming platform are not mentioned, but the origin of this absence leaves little doubt given that the catalog is still struggling to convince, especially after the increase in its prices. From now on, it costs 6.99 euros per month for a subscription, or 2 euros more than before but for an offer that is still much more limited than those of Netflix, Disney + or Amazon Prime Video.
Interesting: Apple reveals rough MAU figures for its major digital products and services in the EU and argues that each be considered for Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) classification under the DSA separately. By this logic, only the App Store qualifies as a VLOP. pic.twitter.com/Li7odwBUKx
— Eric Seufert (@eric_seufert) April 27, 2023
No monopoly, really?
With these statistics, which are well below the competition (YouTube, for example, reaches 402 million MAUs in Europe, compared to 255 million for Facebook and 125 million for TikTok), Apple pales in comparison. Especially since most of its software is in fact at the back of the pack, such as the watchOS App Store which does not exceed one million monthly users within our borders.
Although this is of course not a strategy of dissimulation, these numbers however hide a completely different reality, for the benefit of Apple which tries by all means to demonstrate by A + B that those who accused of monopoly are mistaken. The company is in fact accused of granting itself a very large majority of the commissions on in-app purchases, said App Store precisely. We are talking here about 15 to 30% of each transaction, whether it was made from macOS or from iOS – among others. And no, the Google Play Store doesn’t measure up with a much smaller share of the market: iPhone owners are spending a lot more, and have been for a long time.
We must now expect changes
With its more than one hundred million monthly active users, the App Store for iPhone will have to comply with the DSA as soon as it comes into force at the end of 2023. If Apple does not page, the fine may be set at 6% of worldwide turnover, and if this is not settled as amused to do so the Apple in the Netherlands, an outright ban on its operations in the member countries of the European Union may be pronounced.
Otherwise, among the improvements that should arrive on our iOS mobiles, we must in particular expect the end of targeted advertising for children, which are already trying to protect somehow Apple developers. But among the other updates that are likely to sting, Tim Cook and his teams will also have to lift the veil on their algorithms of recommendation. And so there are only a few months left to prepare for it…
