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text丨chen cong

produced by shi tianhao observation (shitianhao01)

the new iphone 16 series arrived as scheduled, and the rumors that everyone was worried about not supporting wechat were refuted. however, there was no new news on the previously hotly debated "apple tax" issue, and there is still no definite answer to this controversy.

not long ago,the term "apple wechat" became a hot search on weibo。the "apple tax" dispute between apple and wechat has once again attracted widespread public attention, especially after rumors on september 2 that the iphone 16 might not support wechat. although apple's official customer service promptly clarified that there is currently no official notification that the iphone 16 will not support wechat, this incident has undoubtedly exacerbated the tension between the two sides over the "apple tax" issue. on september 6, wechat's ios 8.0.51 version update, coupled with the end of the press conference in the early morning of the 10th, directly broke the previous rumors that wechat might stop updating.

what is apple tax?

if you are a new user who is planning to buy iphone 16, you must read this article carefully. what exactly is apple tax? "apple tax" is a tax imposed by apple on its app store platform.in-app purchase behaviorthe commissions collected are usually between 15% and 30%. this is not a government tax, but a revenue sharing mechanism based on platform services, whereby apple earns revenue from transactions such as game props, virtual currency, and subscription services purchased by users within the app. in contrast, the android ecosystem does not have this problem.

taking the tiktok platform as an example, an apple phone user may only get 70 diamonds for a 10 yuan recharge, while an android user can get 100 diamonds for the same amount of recharge. the difference comes from the commission taken by apple. this profit-sharing model is legal because it is based on the service agreement between the user and apple.

developers and consumers are generally concerned that apple's high commission rate may increase purchase costs and squeeze developers' profit margins, thus affecting innovation and market competition. in response to this controversy, apple has adjusted its policies in some regions, such as the european union, reducing commission rates and allowing users to download apps through other channels. however, in the chinese market, apple still maintains a relatively high commission rate.

in order to avoid the high "apple tax", some companies have begun to seek other payment solutions. for example, i used an android backup phone to recharge douyin diamonds. currently, switching phones with the same account does not affect diamonds, but the data of many games and applications are not interoperable between the ios and android versions.

apple tax, "protection fee" in the technology field?

with the android ecosystem as a reference, apple tax, also considered a controversial "protection fee" in the technology field, brought apple a huge revenue of about us$22.34 billion in 2023. the contribution of the chinese market was particularly significant, exceeding rmb 40 billion. in the chinese market, the rate of apple tax is as high as 30%, which is considered to be the highest level in the world.

this high ratio not only increases developers' operating costs, restricts innovation and market competition, but also increases consumers' purchase costs, causing damage to apple's credibility in the chinese market.

therefore, some iphone users who pursue fairness filed a lawsuit against apple.chinese consumers lost the antitrust lawsuit against apple in the first instance, and the controversy over the "apple tax" continues.

on may 29, 2024, the shanghai intellectual property court issued a first-instance judgment on the first antitrust lawsuit filed by consumers against the "apple tax". the court confirmed that apple has a dominant market position in the chinese software market, but rejected the plaintiff jin's request that apple stop collecting the 30% "apple tax" and stop forcing the use of apple pay.

the plaintiff, jin, filed a lawsuit against apple and its shanghai branch in january 2021, accusing them of monopolizing the high "apple tax" and restricting payment methods. the "apple tax" refers to the 15% to 30% commission levied by apple on transactions of apps in the app store. jin's attorney, wang qiongfei of zhejiang kenting law firm, said that although he respected the first-instance judgment, he believed that apple's practices constituted an abuse of its market dominance and planned to appeal the case to the supreme people's court.

the focus of the dispute in this case is whether apple has implemented unfairly high prices and forced bundling. jin believes that apple has deprived consumers of their right to choose and fair trade by restricting payment methods, thereby damaging consumer interests. however, the court believes that apple's iap (in-app purchase) module is mainly aimed at developers and does not directly affect consumer interests, and apple's payment policy actually protects transaction security and maintains a reasonable business model.

although the court found apple's dominant position in the chinese market, it believed that it did not result in the exclusion or restriction of market competition. lawyer wang qiongfei pointed out that many apple mobile phone users do not understand that because they use apple devices, they often need to pay higher prices than android users when purchasing membership services. according to sensor tower statistics, the "apple tax" brought apple about us$22.34 billion in global revenue in 2023, of which china accounted for rmb 40 billion.

the lawsuit highlights consumers' dissatisfaction with apple's charging policy and their strong calls for market fairness. although the lawsuit in china failed, there are successful cases of challenging apple's tax around the world. next, let's turn our attention to europe.

get a piece of the piethe european union

the controversy caused by the "apple tax" continues to ferment internationally, with the european union posing a severe challenge to the apple tax. music streaming giant spotify and game developer epic games have also had legal disputes with apple over their charging policies.

the european union has issued a fine of up to 1.84 billion euros (about 14.2 billion yuan) to apple, marking a new round of counterattacks against apple's antitrust investigation. faced with pressure from the european union, apple has had to adopt a more flexible strategy. in the ios 17.4 version, apple relaxed its policies for developers in the 27 eu member states, allowing them to use third-party application download channels and payment methods, no longer requiring the use of apple pay, and reducing the rate of "apple tax".

the starting point of this dispute was spotify's formal complaint against apple. as the world's largest music streaming service platform, spotify filed a complaint with the european commission in 2019, accusing apple of using its dominant position in the app store to engage in unfair competition, especially in imposing a 30% "apple tax." this prompted apple to adjust its charging policy, reducing the original commission rates of 30% and 15% (for small and medium-sized developers with annual revenue of less than $1 million) to 17% and 10%, respectively.

spotify's legal conflict with apple has exposed apple's possible market abuses and bolstered the global anti-apple movement. the fight has heightened public awareness of apple's business practices and set a model for other countries to challenge apple. in china, wechat is playing a leading role in the fight against the "apple tax."

i am not paying taxes, i am giving out red envelopes

you may wonder if apple and wechat will win in a conflict. in fact, there is no need to worry. as early as 2017, wechat has already won once. in 2017, apple extended its "apple tax" policy to the wechat platform, defining users' rewards for original content on public accounts as "in-app purchases" and requiring a share of the proceeds.

faced with this policy, wechat chose to cancel the reward function in the ios version as a sign of protest.

after three months of stalemate, apple re-evaluated its policy and finally announced that it would give up the commission requirement for wechat's reward function, but at the same time stipulated that all platforms should not take a cut from the rewards, and all reward amounts should be transferred in full to the content creators. this adjustment temporarily eased the tension between the two sides. in other words, under the new regulations, rewards can no longer be forced to use the app store in-app purchase model, but can be sent directly to the rewarded person. this means that rewards no longer have to pay apple a 30% share. this means that wechat has strong negotiating power in the domestic market with its strong user base and market influence.

but apple's adherence to the "apple tax" worldwide and its dominance in the app store mean it is difficult for any developer or platform to completely circumvent apple's rules.

however, nowadays, with the popularity of wechat mini-games and the continuous increase in transaction volume, apple has once again set its sights on this field, intending to include in-app purchases of mini-games in the scope of "apple tax". as a platform with 1.37 billion active users, wechat's important position in the chinese market provides it with bargaining chips in negotiations with apple.

the rapid development of wechat mini-games and mini-programs has not only brought huge traffic and potential revenue to tencent, but also provided wechat with the confidence to face apple's "apple tax" policy. therefore, wechat is fully capable of saying no to apple.

small games, big cake

the explosive growth of the mini-game market has become a new source of controversy over the "apple tax". according to reports, apple has recently put pressure on tencent and bytedance to block the "loophole" that allows developers to direct users to external payment systems to avoid apple's 30% commission.

the rise of wechat mini games marks that it has become a huge market with a scale of tens of billions of yuan and huge growth potential. the success of wechat mini games has not only brought huge traffic and revenue to tencent, but also put it in a favorable position in negotiations with apple. however, apple has taken a tough stance on the issue of recharge commissions for mini games, which is related to its core interests in software service revenue.

how to avoid

the game between apple and tencent has entered a new stage. apple discovered that there is a "loophole" in the recharge process of wechat mini-games. users obtain payment links through the customer service chat interface and bypass iap to complete payment. wechat's business model cleverly circumvents apple's commission mechanism. most consumption behaviors are completed through wechat payment, not apple's iap. this practice directly touches the bottom line of apple's app store rules. although the live broadcast reward function of video account is connected to iap, it accounts for a small proportion of the entire wechat ecosystem.

big cake

according to official wechat data, there are 1 billion wechat mini-game users, 500 million monthly active users, and more than 240 games with quarterly revenue exceeding 10 million. market estimates show that wechat mini-games will generate annual revenue of about 24.2 billion yuan in 2023, and the ios platform may contribute tens of billions of yuan in revenue. if apple can extract 30% of this, it will gain billions of potential revenue.

why the obsession with apple tax

software services have become a key part of apple's revenue growth, accounting for 28% of total revenue. the rapid growth of the mini-game market, and its gross profit margin of up to 95%, make it a gold mine that apple cannot ignore. tencent takes a 40% commission on mini-game recharges on the android platform, but does not take a commission on the ios platform for the time being. this may be a delaying tactic by wechat in its negotiations with apple. apple provides "apple tax" benefits to small and medium-sized developers, and developers with annual turnover of less than $1 million can enjoy a 15% rate. but in the case of wechat mini-games, all turnover is counted into tencent and cannot enjoy the discount. this actually forms a "second app store" situation, touching apple's sensitive nerves.

the challenge facing apple is that it does not want to be seen as creating an unfair competitive environment because of private agreements with individual companies. previous disputes with amazon, netflix, spotify and epic games all stem from apple's insistence on app store rules. today, this "apple tax" dispute surrounding small games not only tests apple's policy making, but also affects the future direction of the entire mobile internet ecosystem.

choose one?wechat!

then everyone may worry, do we need to choose between apple and wechat, and we cannot have our cake and eat it too?

however, the fact is that in the competition between technology giants, we do not have to face the situation of "choosing one or the other" between wechat and apple. history has proven that this strategy is usually to limit competition rather than win-win. tencent revealed at its earnings conference that it is negotiating with apple on the issue of revenue sharing from wechat mini-games and considering transactions through the ios payment system, which means that apple may get a share of it. we are happy to see the two technology giants shine in their respective fields. if they really have to make a choice, many users may tend to support wechat.

the latest developments show that apple has approved the latest version of wechat to land on the iphone 16 series, buying more time for the two sides to negotiate on in-app purchase issues. it is reported that the new version of wechat has been optimized in terms of social sharing and live broadcast functions, aiming to ease market concerns about the escalation of disputes between the two sides. the dispute mainly focuses on the wechat mini-game platform. apple requires the blocking of external payment links and prohibits the use of other payment methods through built-in messages to ensure its 30% commission. although tencent rejected apple's request to completely disable in-game messaging, the two sides are still exploring solutions. tencent management said they hope to monetize in-app transactions in a sustainable and fair manner in order to achieve a win-win result for all three parties.

with the launch of the iphone 16 series, the controversy has come to an end for now, but the battle over commissions will continue. in the future, can wechat influence apple to relax its commission policy for in-app purchases? the answer will be revealed in the future.