Apple shuts App Store affiliate program, imperiling recommendation sites

Enlarge / The note sent to affiliate program members letting them know a major source of revenue will be going away. (credit: TouchArcade)

Apple is shutting down an App Store affiliate program that shared a small percentage of revenue generated by third-party links to purchase apps or in-app content. The move will likely have an outsized impact on sites that provide editorial reviews and recommendations of mobile games and other apps, which rely on that affiliate revenue for much of their budget.

The announcement, which will become effective October 1, comes just over a year after Apple cut the program's revenue sharing rates for mobile apps from 7 percent to 2.5 percent. Affiliates will still continue to earn a commission on linked sales for iTunes movies, TV shows, music, and books, as well as subscriptions to Apple Music.

In a note sent to affiliate program members, Apple said the long-running program is shutting down because of "the launch of the new App Store on both iOS and macOS and their increased methods of app discovery." The implication, it seems, is that Apple's own built-in app discovery algorithms are now so good that it no longer needs to encourage actual humans to recommend and link to specific apps and games via the Web.

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