> Unlike other social platforms, Roblox’s revenue is nearly all via user spending rather than advertising. As such, Roblox pays 25% of its revenue to Apple and Google (30% of transactions on those platforms) whereas Facebook, Snap, et al pay effectively 0. Note that Facebook, which has structurally lower costs to service users than Roblox and is far more mature, has an operating margin of roughly 40% — if the company had to pay out 25-30% first, it would never have “tech company” profit margins, let alone profit dollars.
Wow. I've never though about this before, but this is an awful second-order consequence of the high app store fees set by Apple and Google. It essentially incentivizes App makers to treat users as products not customers!
(Not too surprising for Google, but certainly goes against Apple's public stance).
Wow. I've never though about this before, but this is an awful second-order consequence of the high app store fees set by Apple and Google. It essentially incentivizes App makers to treat users as products not customers!
(Not too surprising for Google, but certainly goes against Apple's public stance).