The real monopolies in media

Apple takes 30 per cent on any transaction that goes through its App Store and rarely makes exceptions

“Apple has kicked out Fortnite,” said my devastated 11-year old. Then, joining the collective anger of gamers across the world, he went on to press “like” on the FreeFortnite ad. It is a brilliant parody of Apple’s iconic “1984” ad 36 years ago that took on the might of big tech firms like IBM with Macintosh. Ironically, in the 2020 version the totalitarian Big Brother is the $260-billion Apple and the innovative new kid-on-the-block is the $4.2 billion Epic Games, the owner of Fortnite. The irony is lost on Fortnite’s young users. But just like the battle between Apple and