Facebook work with Apple to test news paywalls on iOS

Facebook works  with Apple to test news paywalls on iOS

Apple is allowing Facebook to bend the subscription rules. Starting March 1st-18, news publishers will be able to use their paywalls inside Facebook’s iOS app.

On Android since October-17, when users run out of free articles and hit the paywall, Facebook has opened a special publisher subscription page in   the  shape   of Instant Articles in Facebook’s  andorid app, where customers complete the subscription transaction, and publishers keep 100 percent of the revenue. That’s despite Android usually charging 30 percent on subscriptions bought inside native apps.

Now, On iOS thanks to the new agreement with Apple, when a user runs out of free articles and would hit the paywall, Facebook tells me it will load the subscription page on the publisher’s mobile website instead of in Instant Articles. Publishers will get to keep 100 percent of the subscription revenue and the customer data, while Facebook charges nothing and the mobile web work  around circumvents Apple’s standard 30 percent fee on subscriptions.

This means Facebook is getting a sweetheart “deal” to pass on to publishers because typically Apple  forbids apps from including links to their subscription checkout pages to bypass the 30 percent tax. Facebook tells me it’s not paying Apple anything for this. Instead, it says that since the mobile web subscription page auto-loads after you run out of free in-app Instant Articles.

Mr. Brown said. “We’ve made some changes. We’ve lowered the meter to five articles before you hit the paywall. I’m super excited about the potential here.”

Backing up that claim that this is a serious strategy shift, Digital Content Next CEO "jason Kint. " said Facebook told him paywalls would interfere with Facebook’s data and ads business

  

   
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