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Comment by ABeeSea | Hacker News Reader

Amazon got a special deal.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-29/apple-con...

Don't all subscription services get 15% after the first year? Is Amazon getting that from the very first year, is that what's different here?

That's correct. It's a very big difference if you think about it. Under the normal arrangement, a customer has to retain for 12 months before the 15% rate kicks in.

Depending on the product, you could be losing a significant portion of your customer base before then. For example Netflix, known for insanely good retention, loses nearly 40% of customers by month 12. [1]

[1] https://secondmeasure.com/datapoints/netflix-disney-plus-app...

It doesn't sound like its only Amazon. According to this article:

"The agreement with Amazon is similar to a program Apple announced earlier this year letting select developers avoid the 30% fee in exchange for integrating with certain features. Amazon is part of that program."

"select developers" could be only amazon

Right, only select partners get the sweetheart deal. Like Amazon and Spotify who build integrations with Apple TV.

This is prima facie distinct from a negotiated deal in that apple created a category for amazon, announced it publicly, and have other minor companies in that category too.

Clearly for amazon, but not the same as any hypothetical negotiated private side deal with facebook.

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