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on september 6, foreign media quoted an informed source as saying:apple has approved an update to its ios ecosystem wechat submitted by tencent this week, buying more time for ongoing negotiations.september 6,the topic #apple will release wechat version update# once ranked first in hot searches.

recently, there was a rumor in the market that "wechat may not support iphone 16". the reporter contacted apple's official customer service, and the customer service replied:"there is currently no information saying that iphone 16 does not support wechat. don't worry, all current iphones can use wechat normally."

at around 16:00 today, the ios version of wechat was officially updated, which will put to rest the previous false speculation that apple’s ios system will not update wechat.

behind these controversies,tencent is negotiating with apple on the revenue sharing of wechat mini-games.apple is said to have demanded that unless tencent removed the payment links used by mini-game developers to accept payment methods outside of the apple platform, apple might reject important updates to wechat.

tencent management responded at the second quarter 2024 earnings conference held in august: "we are not currently monetizing mini programs on ios through in-app transactions. i believe that if this monetization can be achieved, it will not only be in our interests, but also in the interests of apple, and even more in the interests of game developers and users. but we hope to achieve this goal under economically sustainable and fair conditions. therefore, this discussion is ongoing, and we hope to reach a positive result because it will be a win-win situation. if no agreement is reached with apple, the current development status will be maintained."

it is not difficult to see from the response of tencent executives that the focus of tencent’s negotiations is to achieve a win-win-win situation, and how small and medium-sized developers can survive is the core of this negotiation.

the so-called "apple tax" refers to the 15% to 30% commission that apple charges for digital content consumption on all apps on the app store. whenever an apple user pays to download an app through the apple app store or purchases digital goods/services within an app, apple will withhold part of the transaction amount as a "toll" and then transfer the rest to the corresponding app developer.

for many application developers, the "apple tax" will increase operating costs, making some small developer teams or individual developers feel more pressured. however, small games naturally have advantages such as small size and low development costs, so they have attracted a large number of teams, especially small and medium-sized r&d teams. the 2024 wechat open class pro mentioned that among the 300,000+ developers of wechat mini games, more than 80% are small teams with less than 30 people. in order to survive and develop the team, some developers tried to bypass apple's payment system to obtain higher profit margins.

an anonymous mini-game developer told reporters that everyone may subconsciously think that mini-games are very profitable, but in any industry with free competition, practitioners are involved. the cost of traffic promotion for mini-games is very high. during the promotion period of the game, the investment in buying volume is even higher than the scale of recharge flow. even during the stable operation period, 60% to 70% of the flow must be used to maintain the purchase volume. therefore, the profit (rate) of mini-games is relatively low, and the actual profit rate is much lower than the 30% apple tax. if apple must collect apple tax in the future, the traffic model of the entire industry may have to be subverted, and developers must also think of other ways to make up for this loss. the cost increase may inevitably be partially transferred to users, but it also depends on the user's acceptance.

in addition, referring to app games, on the android platform, game developers will cooperate with the terminal. from the perspective of commission alone, the android platform is higher, but android has traffic support, and developers can also choose not to list on the app store. however, apple has fewer choices in serving developers, so the apple tax will make everyone uncomfortable. even if apple tax is introduced for small games in the future, i hope apple can allow developers more choices.

the "apple tax" targeting tencent this time is related to the rapid development of the domestic mini-game industry. in the first half of 2024, the scale of the domestic mini-program game market reached 16.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60.5%, a growth rate far exceeding the industry average. behind this phenomenon is that mini-games, with their lightweight, low-cost and high dissemination efficiency, have quickly occupied users' fragmented time and become the new favorite of mobile internet. in addition, the "use it and go" experience also makes many people unwilling to download app games that are hundreds of megabytes or even over gb (gigabytes), which to a certain extent has once again intensified the conflict of interests between channel dealers and game platforms.

in addition, the high "apple tax" may also inhibit innovation. due to the huge cost pressure, many developers may give up trying new technologies or innovative models and choose conservative development strategies instead. in march this year, the u.s. department of justice, together with the attorneys general of more than a dozen states and regions in the united states, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against apple. it is reported that the indictment is 88 pages long and mainly targets five areas where apple is suspected of abusing its power. among them, one of the most concerned is that the u.s. department of justice believes thatapple restricts the development of "mini programs" on the super app platform.

currently, the most popular mini-program application is the wechat platform, and this type of application is also being imitated by foreign companies such as facebook, twitter (now x), uber and snap. however, the super application ecosystem has failed to become popular in the united states. the us department of justice believes that apple's suppression is one of the reasons.

the impact of the "apple tax" is not limited to developers. in fact, in order to maintain profit margins, the most common way for developers is to raise the price of in-app purchases, which makes some apple users pay more than android users when purchasing virtual goods such as audio and video memberships, content subscriptions, and cloud storage memberships. in addition, if users want to recharge on the douyin platform to reward anchors, apple phones can only buy 7 diamonds for 1 yuan, while android phones can buy 10 diamonds for 1 yuan.

currently, the "apple tax" has been criticized and has caused dissatisfaction among a large number of developers and users around the world. in recent years, not only the european union, but also many countries such as japan, south korea, and turkey have launched legislative challenges against the "apple tax".

in june this year, japan's fair competitionmemberthe official website of the japan federal trade commission (jftc) announced that the antitrust bill "smartphone specific software competition promotion law" was passed and implemented in the japanese senate. it is reported that this bill is the latest move by the japanese government to break the monopoly of large technology companies in the smartphone application market.

in recent years, the “in-app payment” settings of google and apple have frequently been embroiled in compliance disputes. the above-mentioned bill makes it clear that “designated providers” may not prevent application developers from using third-party payment methods, such as imposing conditions that prohibit third-party payment systems. on the issue of “self-preferential treatment” by large platforms, the bill stipulates that “designated providers” may not discriminate against or treat application developers unfairly; nor may they give any form of preferential treatment to their own services when displaying search results without justifiable reasons.

although no specific technology companies are directly named, it is generally believed that japan's bill is mainly aimed at technology giants such as apple and google that occupy an important position in the development of operating systems, app stores, browsers and search engines. the bill is expected to take effect at the end of 2025.

in addition, the eu's investigation into apple has not yet stopped.memberthe eu will announce that apple’s new app store terms still violate the eu’s digital markets act. following the eu’s 1.8 billion euro antitrust fine for apple’s monopolistic behavior in the streaming music market in march this year, the eu may take further measures.

south korea is also following japan's footsteps. by the end of 2023, south korea will have fair competitionmemberthe south korean government announced that it would continue to challenge the "apple tax" by enacting the "platform competition promotion act". in june 2022, south korea amended the "telecommunications business act" to force apple to allow korean apps to use third-party payment functions. the standard proportion of south korea's "apple tax" has been reduced from 30% to 26%.

however, in terms of fees, china is still one of the countries in the world where apple has the highest commission rates for in-app transactions. the "apple tax" that apple imposes on standard enterprises and small and medium-sized developers in the chinese market is 30% and 15% respectively.

it is worth noting that in the past decade, apple's quarterly software service revenue has continued to grow, from $4.8 billion in the first fiscal quarter of 2015 to $24.213 billion in the third fiscal quarter of 2024, and its revenue share has expanded from 6.43% to 28.22%. on the contrary, revenue from iphones has dropped from $51.182 billion in the first fiscal quarter of 2015 to $39.296 billion in the third fiscal quarter of 2024, and its revenue share has narrowed from 68.61% to 45.80%. the growth in software service revenue is inseparable from the contribution of the "apple tax".

reducing the domestic apple tax is highly anticipated, but by comparing the lawsuits against apple or the "apple tax" in the above-mentioned countries and regions, it can be seen that government intervention and the promulgation of laws are important factors in winning the case or fighting for rights. it is difficult for individual consumers or companies to challenge global giants of apple's scale.

reporter|wong jing

edit|cheng peng yang xia du hengfeng

proofreading|lu xiangyong

cover image source: screenshot

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