When you open Patreon’s iPhone app and subscribe to a creator, Apple doesn’t step in the way and take a cut. It turns out, that’s not because of some behind-the-scenes arrangement between the two companies — Apple’s App Store team just decided to give Patreon a pass.
“I wish we had some special contract with Apple. We don’t,” Patreon CEO Jack Conte said on Decoder, a podcast from The Verge. “We have to deal with the App Store policies and review process like anybody else.”
On iOS, Apple takes up to a 30 percent cut of in-app payments for digital goods. That means creators on platforms like Twitch, Twitter, and Facebook can expect to lose 30 percent of whatever a fan is…