Only 38 Developers Have Signed Up to Use Apple's Outside Payment Links

Earlier this year, Apple introduced a way for app developers to use outside payment options rather than conduct all transactions through its App Store. At this point, however, only 38 developers have signed up to use the option.

According to testimony presented to a federal judge this week, no major app developers have signed up to use outside payment options because the fees they would pay are just as high as they pay through the App Store, Bloomberg reports.

"It sounds to me as if the goal was to then maintain the business model and revenue you had in the past,” US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said to an Apple executive this week during a multi-day hearing to address a complaint by Epic Games that Apple isn’t abiding by the terms of an order issued by the judge in 2021.

Of the 65,000 app developers that offer in-app purchases on the iPhone, only 38 have applied to include outside links for payments.

Apple would charge those developers a 27% fee to use their links, which is lower than the traditional 30% it charges developers. However, when coupled with credit card fees, many developers would ultimately be paying more by using an outside link rather than simply conducting the transaction through the App Store.

During the week’s proceedings, Bloomberg notes that the judge seemed skeptical that Apple was acting in good faith with this payment setup, which was reportedly approved by a committee that includes CEO Tim Cook."I'm looking for data and it sounds like you all made lots of decisions without data,” she said.

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The hearing will continue next week and could potentially impact how in-app purchases through outside links are handled in the future.

This comes as Microsoft plans to launch a web store for its mobile games later this summer.