apple can earn over 40 billion from china in one year! china has the highest "apple tax" in the world
2024-09-03
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apple and tencent in disputeafter
“apple tax”go up againtrending
on september 2, there were rumors that wechat might not support iphone 16. in addition, once the iphone is upgraded to ios 18.2, users will not be able to use wechat.
the leak of this rumor is related to the escalation of the "apple tax" dispute between apple and tencent. according to reports, apple has recently increased its pressure on companies such as tencent, requiring them to cooperate in plugging payment loopholes in apps such as wechat. it is understood that developers can use similar loopholes to bypass the apple ecosystem and divert users to external payment systems, avoiding the 30% commission fee that apple usually charges.this 30% commission fee is commonly known as the "apple tax."
the apple tax in the eu is 17% and in china it is 30%. china’s apple tax is the highest in the world!
in january, apple made a series of historic changes to its ios, safari and app store products in the eu, aimed at appeasing eu antitrust regulators, including abandoning the highest 30% commission charged to developers since the launch of the apple app store in 2008. now developers only need to pay apple a 17% commission on app sales, and a year later, the commission rate dropped to 10% for most developers and subscribers.
in terms of rates, currently,china is the country in the world where apple has the highest commission rate for in-app transactions - the "apple tax" apple imposes on standard enterprises and small and medium-sized developers in the chinese market is 30% and 15% respectively.according to statistics from sensor tower, a third-party data statistics agency,in 2023, the "apple tax" will generate approximately us$22.34 billion (rmb 160.8 billion) in revenue worldwide, and in china alone, this figure will exceed rmb 40 billion.in addition, apple does not allow out-of-app transactions or third-party payments in china, while these are allowed in the eu, the united states, south korea and other regions.
a similar plot was staged 7 years ago
in fact, apple and tencent have been arguing for years over the issue of "apple tax". on april 19 and 20, 2017, the wechat team sent two push notifications through its official account "wechat pie" for two consecutive days, namely "regret notice" and "re-notice", both related to the closure of the ios version of the wechat public platform appreciation function. as for the reason for the closure, wechat said at the time, "on june 13, 2016, apple updated the 3.1.1 clause, which more strictly required that apps should not contain buttons, external links or other calls to action that guide customers to use non-iap (in-app purchase) mechanisms for purchases. after long-term communication and coordination with apple, we finally chose to make the current adjustments to the ios version of wechat's appreciation function with regret."
since then, the dispute between apple and tencent over the "apple tax" has been officially made public.
apple users may know more or less about the "apple tax". for example, if you recharge an app for 10 yuan, android users will get 10 yuan, while apple users will only get 7 yuan. the missing 3 yuan is the so-called "apple tax". apple stipulates that every time a user recharges a paid transaction, the developer needs to pay apple 30% of the service fee. this behavior has made many companies dissatisfied. after all, no one can be happy if so much money is taken away for nothing.
according to industry insiders, the "fight" between apple and tencent this time is largely aimed at the booming mini-game market. in the mini-game market, it has become an industry practice for developers to bypass apple's payment system and "apple tax" in various ways. for example, in wechat mini-games, users can go through the game's own customer service center entrance and enter the customer service conversation page to recharge, thereby bypassing apple's own payment system. it is reported that in the first half of 2024, wechat mini-games earned more than 12 billion yuan, so apple is jealous and wants to get a piece of the pie.
both sides responded to the rumors
regarding the recent dispute between apple and tencent, tencent management stated in a recent earnings call that there are some misunderstandings about the nature of the current situation, which is that tencent is not currently commercializing small games on ios through in-app purchases (bypassing payment), and relevant discussions are ongoing.
in addition, a media reporter called the official hotlines of tencent and apple regarding the recent rumor that wechat may not support iphone 16. a tencent staff member said: "we have not received this news for the time being." apple's technical consultant for china said that third-party comments about whether ios systems or apple devices can use wechat, including whether wechat can continue to be listed and downloaded in the apple app store, need to be communicated and discussed between apple and tencent to determine the future situation. the technical consultant mentioned that in order to list software on the apple store, developers may need to pay apple a certain fee before they can list or download it.
"app developers put their software on the apple app store. when the software reaches a certain number of downloads, every time a user downloads the software, the developer has to pay apple a certain fee." apple's china technical consultant said that apple is currently actively communicating with tencent. as wechat is a popular software, both parties will make certain arrangements for their own benefits, so there is no need to worry for the time being. "as for whether wechat can be downloaded and used in the future, everyone is concerned about whether it can be downloaded and used. we need to wait for the official notification. we cannot make any judgment on third-party information, and the above explanation is for reference only." the technical consultant said.
source丨china news service, upstream news
