Apple has changed the affiliate program of the App Store, introduction of the application is not eligible for compensation

Apple announced on October 1, 2018 that the terms of the affiliate program of the App Store will be changed. After the program change, referrals of the application and in-app contents will be excluded from the remuneration target, and you will not be able to get rewards guided to the App Store.

Affiliate Program App Store Updates
https://affiliate.itunes.apple.com/resources/blog/affiliate-program-app-store-updates/

Apple says it is removing apps & in-app purchases from its iTunes Affiliate Program | 9to5Mac
https://9to5mac.com/2018/08/01/apple-app-store-affiliate-removal/

Apple has begun providing the App Store with UI improvements from iOS 11 and will be releasing an improved Mac App Store for macOS Mojave at the time of writing the article. The company has stated that "the user will find it more easily" thanks to the new iOS and the App Store for macOS, he stated that the search efficiency of the application has been greatly improved.

With this improvement, Apple announced that it is "not necessary to have the application introduced in the third-party website or the application related news site", Apple announced that it will exclude the application introduction fee from the affiliate program. According to the company, only the application and in-app contents are excluded, and we continue to keep affiliates for contents other than apps such as music and movies.

The sales amount in the App Store is distributed to 70% by the application developer and 30% by Apple. And since affiliate fees are paid out of 30% of Apple's share, there was a problem that the company's profit is reduced. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Apple reduced the remuneration amount of in-app charged content from 7% to 2.5% in 2017 and was doing the effort to secure income of the company. This time, due to improvement of the App Store, it is expected that Apple will be able to secure all 30% of the share by setting the affiliate remuneration amount to zero, greatly improving profit.

However, it is true that there are people who are affected by the change in this affiliate program. Especially, application introduction sites that depend on affiliate income from Apple are likely to be forced to change policy to secure new revenue sources.