Telegram had plans to help content creators monetize their posts. But the company wanted to do it through Telegram's payment system instead of Apple's, meaning it'll bypass its 30% fee for developers. Apple wasn't happy with this plan, especially since it goes after its rules. So, Telegram has to cancel for now but says it'll look for ways users can monetize content on its app outside of Apple's ecosystem.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov called on regulators to take action through a message on his Telegram channel:
Unfortunately, we received word from Apple that they were not happy with content creators monetizing their efforts without paying a 30% tax to Apple. Since Apple has complete control over its ecosystem, we had no alternative but to disable such paid posts on iOS devices.
This is just another example of how a trillion-dollar monopoly abuses its market dominance at the expense of millions of users who are trying to monetize their own content. I hope that the regulators in the EU, India and elsewhere start taking action before Apple destroys more dreams and crushes more entrepreneurs with a tax that is higher than any government-levied VAT.