{"id":46241,"date":"2024-12-20T16:53:36","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T21:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=46241"},"modified":"2024-12-20T17:36:08","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T22:36:08","slug":"why-disney-stopped-subscriptions-on-the-app-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/20\/why-disney-stopped-subscriptions-on-the-app-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Disney Stopped Subscriptions on the App Store"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ariel Michaeli<\/a> (October 2024):<\/p>\n

I see Disney’s choice of leaving the App Store as a long-term mistake that would cost them even more than the 30% they were giving Apple.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Ariel Michaeli<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Now that we have enough MRR data I think the reason is a bit clearer - and it isn’t just about fees.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

In November, the first full month of no subscriptions, Disney+’s net revenue dropped by about $16M and Hulu’s by 28% - that’s double-digit millions in both cases - which means paying users are abandoning Disney at an alarming rate.<\/p>

I think the reason Disney pulled out of subscriptions in the App Store is because they couldn’t figure out how to fight the churn which in turn necessitated getting fresh subscribers which isn’t easy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Maybe I’m missing something, but this doesn’t make sense to me. First, the revenue reported<\/a> is from both the App Store and Google Play; it would be helpful to see the Apple portion broken out. Second, why would leaving the App Store help with churn? I could maybe see that there’s more churn with App Store customers because Apple makes it easier to cancel. If you can get the same person to subscribe on the Web they might be more sticky. But, on the other hand, maybe it’s easier to sign them up with IAP. Easy come, easy go.<\/p>\n\n

Without knowing the overall revenue picture, including direct-to-Disney revenue, I think it’s hard to conclude much. Of course<\/em>, the App Store numbers are going down because every month there will be some cancellations with no new sign-ups. But we don’t know how many new and return subscribers there are or whether that would have been higher or lower with the App Store. Presumably, in the past there was a good stream of new App Store subscribers since the total was up over the year.<\/p>\n\n

To me, the only thing this shows for sure is that the churn is very high, which suggests that lots of App Store subscribers were not staying long enough for Disney to go down from paying 30% to 15% in fees to Apple.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n