The affiliate program, which allowed websites with reviews of iOS applications to receive a percentage of purchases in the App Store, will be closed from October 1.
Apple explained its decision by saying that the findability of applications in the App Store has become better. Apparently, from the point of view of Apple, which recently reached a capitalization of $1 trillion, the number of app buyers coming from third-party sites is small.
Apple’s announcement about the Affiliate program
For the sites themselves that specialized in reviews, this is a serious blow.
The editor-in-chief of a major TouchArcade review portal, Eli Hodapp, wrote a heartfelt post in which he admitted that now he does not understand how the site can continue to exist.
No matter how hard times were, we always at least had revenue from the App Store affiliate program. We attracted a huge number of buyers there. I do not know how else to perceive Apple's act - the company just gave the middle finger to all sites like TouchArcade, AppShopper and others that have been promoting the App Store and iOS games for ten years.
Chief Editor of TouchArcade
Recall that the partner program has been operating in Russia for five years.
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