Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, and co-founder of Facebook announced that the company will not receive any commission from the revenue of content creators who make money through its platform until 2023. The social media giant plans to compete with Substack, Patreon, and other content creator platforms by announcing that its independent news product will be free for anyone who uses it to post. And Facebook has previously made paid online events, fan subscriptions, and badges free for use by content creators during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Zuckerberg promised that when Facebook starts collecting a portion of the revenue from content creators, it will be less than the 30% that Apple and others get. This is despite the fact that he did not specify the percentage. To help more content creators make a living on our platforms, we continue to provide paid online events, fan subscriptions, badges, and our upcoming independent news products for free to creators through 2023. When we get a share of the profits, it will be less than the 30% that Apple and others get.
Facebook attacks Apple
The social giant's pledge not to deduct any fees from content creators across Facebook and Instagram for the next year and a half and more specifically Zuckerberg's criticism of Apple's commission is part of a public battle between Facebook and Apple that has escalated in the past year. Facebook has complained about the 30% commission that Apple's App Store charges for in-app purchases.
Epic Games, the maker of the game Fortnite, sued Apple, claiming that it imposed monopolistic terms through the App Store. The social media giant has previously sided with other developers in protest of Apple's commission via the App Store. In addition, the company on Monday also introduced a payment interface to help content makers better understand payments.
Starting with paid online events, creators see after-tax returns, refunds, and in-app purchase fees from purchases made across iOS and Android devices. The interface is initially launched across the web only for paid online events.