Peter Kafka Interviews MLB.com CEO Bob Bowman

Peter Kafka:

MLB.com boasts one of the most successful subscription businesses in digital media; last year, the company reported 1.5 million subscribers, and expects that number to hit 2 million this year. So it’s worth listening to Bowman’s take on Apple vs. Android, his company’s recent Facebook experiment, and why mobile advertising is taking off. […]

Kafka: Why do you think an Android owner behaves differently than an iPhone owner?

Bowman: The iPhone and iPad user is interested in buying content — that’s one of the reasons they bought the device. The Android buyer is different.

I.e., Android users are cheap.

Kafka: So you’re selling via Apple’s new in-app subscription rules. But you’ve decided you can live with them?

Bowman: We’ve been living by them since March 1st. We don’t view them as a dramatic change from where they’ve been in the past. We’re hopeful that over time, the margin will fall from 30 percent, but we don’t know if it will.

But make no mistake about it, Apple’s been a great partner. Last I checked, they created the iPhone and the iPad.

★ Monday, 4 April 2011