Financial Times Web App Enjoys Popularity With 200,000 Downloads Already
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Financial Times and Apple were in a bit of stalemate for part of this year due to Apple’s in-app purchasing rules. Financial Times was very clear about their issue with Apple’s 30% cut of sales through the App Store and full access to subscriber data.
In the end, Financial Times opted not to comply with Apple’s rules, and instead, launched an HTML5 website that has found quite a bit of success with readers and has managed to stay away from the App Store.
Financial Times launched their new web app just two weeks ago, and according to Media Week, the publisher is already nearing 200,000 downloads. Financial Times broke the trend with Apple’s in-app purchasing rules, and it was the first major newspaper to explore on its own with a web based app.
As of now, it looks like there is no turning back for Financial Times:
“We’ve seen strong demand for the FT web app since its launch. We have an ongoing marketing campaign encouraging users to migrate to the new platform and we’re confident we can maintain the momentum.”, said a Financial Times spokesman via interview with Media Week.
These results will be quite interesting going forward. Considering Financial Times’ success, perhaps some other major publications may decide to explore their own web app models while keeping close contact with their own subscribers.
