Telegram founder accuses Apple of destroying dreams and crushing entrepreneurs

The post is specifically aimed at Apple’s 30% tax which it charges on in-app purchases (Bloomberg)

• Durov says that Apple has informed Telegram that it will not allow the use of third-party payment methods to sell access to individual posts in their Telegram channels.

 Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov is accusing Apple of crushing dreams and ruining entrepreneurship with its App Store rules. In a post on his Telegram channel, Durov says that the US company is abusing its ‘market dominance at the expense of millions of users who are trying to monetize their own content.’ The post is specifically aimed at Apple’s 30% tax which it charges on in-app purchases from developers who make over $1 million a year.

Durov says that Apple has informed Telegram that it will not allow the use of third-party payment methods to sell access to individual posts in their Telegram channels. For the unversed, Telegram allows content creators to offer access to channels through third-party payment bots. Durov says that this way, content creators could receive close to 100% of whatever their subscribers paid, which was great.

“Unfortunately, we received word from Apple that they were not happy with content creators monetizing their efforts without paying a 30% tax to Apple", Durov writes in the post.

Durov’s comments come after Apple announced App Store rules that debar developers from monetizing their content bypassing its in-app payments systems.

“This is just another example of how a trillion-dollar monopoly abuses its market dominance at the expense of millions of users who are trying to monetize their own content," he writes. Durov also calls upon regulators in the EU, India and other countries to take action before Apple destroys more dreams and crushes more entrepreneurs.

“I hope that the regulators in the EU, India and elsewhere start taking action before Apple destroys more dreams and crushes more entrepreneurs with a tax that is higher than any government-levied VAT", he writes in the post.

“In the meantime, we at Telegram shall work to offer creators powerful and easy-to-use tools to monetize their content – outside of Apple's restrictive ecosystem", he further adds.