Netflix Becomes Top-Grossing iPhone App in the U.S.
Netflix’s iPhone app topped Apple’s list of top-grossing apps for the first time Monday, surpassing not only mobile games like “Mobile Strike” and “Candy Crush Saga,” but also fellow subscription services like Spotify and Pandora. The news comes on the heels of Netflix adding mobile downloading capabilities to its iOS and Android apps.
The ascend in the top-grossing chart was fist noted by SensorTower, a company that tracks app performances across mobile app stores. “In addition to being the top app in the U.S., it also occupies the No. 1 grossing spot on iPhone in India, Mexico, and Colombia,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Netflix’s app is free to download in the Apple App Store, but the company started to offer users the ability to pay for their monthly subscription fees via in-app subscription fees a little over a year ago.
Apple is charging publishers a 30 percent cut on any in-app fees, which has long been criticized by media services and game developers alike. In June, Apple announced that it was going to lower this fee to 15 percent for any user that stays subscribed for 12 months or longer. In addition, Apple is reportedly looking to lower its fees to 15 percent for any video app that joins its new programming guide for Apple TV.
Netflix added the ability to download select programming to its mobile apps last week. To do so, the company tweaked its encoding schemes for mobile video, allowing users to download better-looking videos at equal or smaller file sizes.
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