mashang comment: behind the controversy over the "apple tax" is a dispute over the right to speak on the consumer ecology
2024-09-04
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recently, the rumor that "iphone 16 does not support wechat" has made the controversial 30% "apple tax" a hot topic. as a result, more and more netizens have discovered that apple users are also facing the invisible "apple tax" not only on wechat, but also on multiple platforms including short videos and picture and text sharing. for example, one netizen found that "if you want to recharge and give gifts to the anchor during a live broadcast, an apple phone will give you 7 diamonds for 1 yuan, while an android phone will give you 10 diamonds for 1 yuan."
the so-called "apple tax" is the commission that apple charges to software service providers that distribute applications in the system. because it is a transaction commission, it is also commonly known as the "apple tax" in the industry. generally speaking, the commission rate is 15% to 30% of digital content consumption. of course, the android system also has similar settings, but because of the openness of the android system, there are many ways and means to circumvent the android tax, while the ios system is relatively closed, which also makes the "apple tax" a target of public criticism.
in recent years, the "apple tax" has been criticized in many places around the world, causing dissatisfaction among a large number of developers and users. apple has been sued or investigated by the government in many places such as the european union, the united states, japan and south korea. for example, the european union issued a fine of 1.84 billion euros (about 14.2 billion yuan) to apple in the first half of this year. in order to avoid being fined, apple has made a series of adjustments in the european union, including a significant reduction in the "apple tax". under the requirements of the eu's "digital markets act", the "apple tax" ratio has been reduced from the original 30% and 15% to 17% and 10% respectively.
in fact, the "apple tax" is not a unified standard around the world, but varies according to local conditions. however, the tax rate of "apple tax" in china is at a relatively high level in the world, which has also made many developers and users dissatisfied. now that the basic application wechat may also be affected by the "apple tax", this contradiction has undoubtedly intensified.
it should be noted that the emergence and spread of the "apple tax" is directly related to apple's own lack of innovation in recent years. apple has always been considered to have missed the current ai boom. at the beginning of this year, its position as the king of market value was surpassed by its old rival microsoft. this has made apple even more in need of finding new profit growth points to tell the capital market about new possibilities. there is no doubt that the mandatory apple tax based on the apple ecosystem is the best story - it means extremely stable income and a steady stream of cash flow.
despite the opposition, from the perspective of apple at the current stage, as one of apple's largest markets in the world, it is still very likely that the "apple tax" will continue to increase in the chinese market. whether the "apple tax" is reasonable is certainly worth discussing, but we should also see another problem: if the digital application ecosystem of a large number of users is still very dependent on apple's hardware infrastructure, then the user level essentially lacks the confidence to bargain. it can be seen that behind the controversy over the "apple tax" is still a dispute over the right to speak in the consumer ecosystem.
at present, the apple ecosystem still has many advantages such as security, smoothness, and reliability. in order to maintain the operation of this ecosystem, apple itself does need to invest more in research and development than android. it can be seen that the answer to solving the problem of "apple tax" is more sufficient competition.
it is conceivable that the continuous increase of "apple tax" will inevitably encourage more competitors to catch up, which is precisely the charm of open innovation. from a market perspective, users need an equally reliable and open ecosystem to compete with apple. only when apple feels the pressure of the market can it really lower its profile.
chen bai, special commentator of the paper
(this article is from the paper. for more original information, please download the "the paper" app)
