"xia ke dao" "apple tax", is it fair to china?
2024-09-07
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source: overseas network
if you own both an apple phone and an android phone, you may find that: when you buy the same amount of virtual currency on the app, the price shown on the apple phone is always a little higher than that on the android phone; a monthly subscription for a video platform membership may cost 26 yuan on an android phone, but on an apple phone, the same item costs 30 yuan.
this is not the result of big data killing old customers, but the result of the high "apple tax".
moreover, china’s “apple tax” is as high as 30%, the highest in the world.
one
what is the “apple tax”?
in short, as long as you use an apple phone or tablet, whether you pay to download the app, or subscribe, reward, or recharge within the software, apple will take a commission from it.
this means that in our daily mobile consumption scenarios, apart from buying things on shopping websites, other payments such as purchasing game props, subscribing to video platform memberships, and giving live broadcast rewards, all require paying taxes to apple. in china, apple charges a 30% share of apps with annual revenue of more than $1 million. moreover, it is not just about profits, but all operating flows of in-app payments within the system are subject to mandatory "taxation".
apple is not the only company that charges commissions from its app stores. but overall, apple's "tax strategy" makes it more difficult for developers and consumers, mainly in three aspects:
first, the apple system is very closed. if you want to install software on an apple phone, the developer must list the software on the apple app store, so taking a cut is inevitable.
second, other app stores have limited commissions, and the actual commissions are mainly for the gaming industry. they do not charge commissions for social, live broadcast, online video, tool and other apps. however, apple charges commissions for all apps regardless of type.
third, other app stores offer a wider range of preferential commissions. some allow developers to use third-party payment methods without charging any fees, while others halve the commission for the first $1 million in revenue for all developers.
in 2023 alone, the chinese market "contributed" more than 40 billion yuan in "apple tax". some institutions estimate that if the commission rate remains unchanged in the next five years, the "apple tax" generated by the chinese market will exceed 280 billion yuan.
two
there is a very famous lawsuit in the united states regarding the "apple tax".
in 2020, the game "fortnite" developed by the american game company epic games was removed from apple's shelves for bypassing apple's official channels to make players pay. afterwards, epic games filed a lawsuit against apple. this move was also supported by musk - on social platforms, musk has repeatedly criticized the "apple tax" for being too high, "10 times more than it should be", and said "if apple removes x (formerly twitter), then make a mobile phone with this program embedded."
in january this year, the us supreme court ruled that apple can continue to prohibit the use of third-party payment processing methods in applications, but must allow developers to inform users of other payment methods. subsequently, apple modified the app store rules in the united states, allowing developers to use external links to guide users to official website transactions and reducing the commission rate in the united states by 3 percentage points.
in addition to the united states, the "apple tax" in many places has been reduced in recent years.
in 2021, apple opened third-party payment in south korea and "reduced taxes" to 26%;
this year, apple launched major adjustments in the eu, opening up third-party downloads and third-party payments, and significantly reducing commission rates from the original 30% and 15% to 17% and 10%, and reducing the tax rate for transactions redirected to external websites through app external links to 10%-15%;
……
three
in the chinese market, apple has a strong brand recognition. but chinese developers and consumers will also ask, since the "apple tax" in many countries and regions has been reduced, why is it still 30% in china? some netizens complained: "if you use apple, your wallet must be deeper, deeper."
someone has done the math: if apple lowers its commission rate in the chinese market, even if it only refers to the korean standard (26%), the "apple tax" for chinese developers and consumers will be reduced by 37.4 billion yuan in the next five years; if it follows eu regulations and reduces it from 30% to 17%, the "apple tax" in the chinese market will be reduced by 121.7 billion yuan in the next five years.
this is not a small amount. obviously, in the context of lower commission rates in the united states and europe, if china, one of apple's most important markets, still has to "pay taxes" at a rate of 30%, it will easily cause dissatisfaction among developers and consumers. recently, there have been reports that apple threatened to remove chinese apps such as wechat and tiktok from the apple store in order to collect "apple taxes" from small games and short dramas, which has revived the controversy over the "apple tax".
it is true that it is normal business behavior for multinational companies to implement differentiated business strategies in different countries and regions, but the premise should be that they do not incur unfair cost burdens. from this perspective, is the "apple tax" fair to china?
text/shan qiu
editor/yun ge
source/xiakedao wechat official account
