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Comment by baxtr | Hacker News Reader

How? I was never offered to purchase an ad as user.

Create a Facebook page and download the Ads Manager app

Like creating a Netflix account on Netflix.com and adding my payment credentials there (or Spotify), and then consuming it on the iPhone w/o apple getting any cut?

Using that analogy, it would be like if Netflix let you sign up in its app (purchase the subscription without leaving the app). (The FB ads manager app let's you "place" ad orders on iOS.) Instead, Netflix doesn't let you make that sign up transaction in-app. In fact, it doesn't even link out to a web site where you can, because Apple limits Netflix's speech in that regard.

Ok, got it. So it’s like purchasing physical items in the amazon app? Which makes sense to me since ads don’t improve the in-app experience for me as a user. They don’t make standard app ==> better app. Ads are “consumed” by many other people, on many devices, aren’t they?

Same for Wordpress, right? If I'm purchasing a hosting platform for my website, that doesn't make the Wordpress app any better, and it doesn't change the content I have inside the app -- it's purely a downstream change that affects my business, the same as if I bought an ad on Facebook.

So shouldn't Wordpress be able to offer hosting transactions in-app without paying 30%?

I don’t know the app, but from your description I’d follow the same reasoning, yes.

Of course selling ads in the app improves the in-app experience, otherwise Facebook wouldn't sell them in the app! Surely some folks prefer to place their add orders on their phone instead of sitting down at their desktop.

The experience is not different than before. You can buy ads or not. They don’t sell the “AI ad manager pro” in the app which manages everything for you. The software remains the same after the purchase.

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