| Some folks have mentioned that this can't be compared to Apple because as a Shopify app creator you have the option to distribute the app on your own platform to avoid the 20% fee. But in an eco-system driven platform I don't think having a choice matters in the end. If users are trained that the best place to install apps is through the app store and there's a huge marketing effort put in place by the app store that you can only trust apps from that store, etc., etc. then it almost doesn't matter if there's an alternative because users immediately associate non-app store apps as being very bad and should be avoided at all costs. I don't use Shopify currently but I imagine the work flow for adding a new app to your store starts with you searching the app store for whatever type of app you want because it's built into the platform. Then you start narrowing down results based on demo videos, features and reviews until you find something you're happy with. Going outside of the app store doesn't even come up because most app types probably have dozens of decent choices on the app store. Even if you decided to Google around most of the top hits will be apps from the app store because Shopify's SEO is very likely going to be better than yours. The only way someone will discover and use your app outside of the app store is you have already have a massive following and trust that you're not a bad actor looking to do something shady by avoiding the app store (because this is what users are trained to think) and your app is leaps and bounds better than anything that exists on the app store so that users are willing to take the risk to go with your non-official app. That doesn't seem like it would happen very often. Does anyone have a wildly successful Shopify app that's not on the app store? To me this feels like an illusion of choice because yes technically you have the option but realistically the outcome is the same as having no option. |