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Apple Pressures ByteDance and Tencent Over App Fee Loopholes in China

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Apple is putting pressure on Tencent and ByteDance to make significant changes to two of China's most popular apps in order to remove loopholes that circumvent Apple's typical 30% commission, Bloomberg reports.

App-Store-Blue-Banner-Chinese-Flag-Feature.jpg

The loopholes are linked to mini-apps that allow users of Tencent's social-messaging app WeChat and ByteDance's short-video app Douyin to play games, hail taxis, and make online purchases without leaving the app.

Apple reportedly told both companies they need to prevent mini-app creators from including links to outside payment systems that circumvent its commission system. Apple said it would not approve future updates to WeChat or Douyin until the companies complied.

Apple also has asked Tencent to disable in-game chats between developers and users, because they can also be used to send links, according to Bloomberg. Tencent has reportedly pushed back against the idea due to the negative impact it would have on the game experience.

The report characterized the moves by Apple as "unusually aggressive" in China, suggesting they may inflame tensions at a time when its business practices are under scrutiny by antitrust regulators around the world.

An Apple spokesperson who contacted Bloomberg cited its guidelines that the sale of all digital goods must go through its system, and that its review team may reject app submissions that violate that policy.

Article Link: Apple Pressures ByteDance and Tencent Over App Fee Loopholes in China
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/2024/08/02/apple-pressures-bytedance-tencent-app-fees/
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arkitect

arkitect

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MacRumors said:
Apple reportedly told both companies they need to prevent mini-app creators from including links to outside payment systems that circumvent its commission system. Apple said it would not approve future updates to WeChat or Douyin until the companies complied.
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Yeah… good luck with that.
I think people outside China have no idea how integrated into daily life WeChat is.


pol0001 said:
Apple is bluffing. They can't afford to kick WeChat of the AppStore in China. WeChat is is needed for lots of day to day activities. They might as well stop selling iPhones in China.
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Agreed.
 
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B

bob24

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ryan102 said:
Apple's usually quite quick kicking western apps off the store for breaching terms. For some reason, the same rules don't apply to China
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As others have said, Apple is bluffing and absolutely can’t kick those Apps out of the App Store.

Not a single young Chinese person would purchase a phone which doesn’t have Byedance’s trendy Apps. And Tencent’s WeChat basically is a requirement for daily life in China (from text/audi/video communication, to paying for stuff at a shop, booking a slot to visit a tourist sight, ordering a taxi or groceries, etc).

Apple pretty much wouldn’t sell a single iPhone in China if WeChat wasn’t available on iOS, while Tenscent would be very fine without Apple, so it is clear Apple has zero leverage whatsoever (an uncomfortable situation they are not used to be in, but it is the actual situation on the Chinese market).
 
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HobeSoundDarryl

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This is the kind of thing that keeps tarnishing the halo. Apple chasing every possible nickel and- if not easily getting it- then flexing their powerful muscle to try to strong arm compliance to further enrich themselves- just looks bad... and fuels awakening GOVs around the world to take actions against them... as is already in play.

Apple is run by such smart people. All it takes is looking at history when others have become richest or near richest company at any time to know that the operational practices & procedures must evolve when you win the Capitalism game... when you are KING or near king of that hill on any given day. When you reach the pinnacle, you can't keep operating like you are one of many players struggling for a bit of a gain against many other competitors. Else, doing this very kind of thing will bring the power of last resort to reel you in: (endlessly deep pocketed) GOVs (with multi-generational legal resources to wage the war for up to centuries if necessary).

Yes, there is easy, "more money" for Apple here if any of this (bluff?) gets these players to roll over and comply. And yes, Apple has an obligation to shareholders to "maximize, maximize, maximize". And yes, those of us who cast them as Corporate Saint or even God can readily rationalize flowing every possible cent to them for all of the wonders and greatness they've delivered throughout the years.

BUT... there's other ways to make "more money." This kind of thing is not a necessity. Survival is long since no longer an issue and hasn't been for 25+ years.

This simply throws more fuel on the legal action fire as Apple keeps flexing "Company Store" muscle. Keep waking up GOVs. Keep making them realize they have to step in and get this under control and the end result will be much worse than isolated bits of pieces of it in play now.

IMO: Apple should shift brainpower from trying to exploit every nickel along these lines to innovating some other great stuff for us to buy to make up for the end of the iDevice app "Company Store" model that IS coming. Much like Lightning to USB-C, it will NOT be a disaster for Apple, Consumers, Countries, or anyone else when it does. Apple will be just fine. Customers will be just fine. Countries will be just fine.

But wow Apple! Get on with it. It will be much better for you to proactively do it then be forced there by reacting to a hundred variants of GOV laws forcing the changes. You're King of the capitalism mountain. You've WON! Act like it or persist like you're still approx. year 200X (much smaller) Apple... and GOV "fronts" will keep opening to try to reel this part of things in.
 
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coffeemilktea

coffeemilktea

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MacRumors said:
The report characterized the moves by Apple as "unusually aggressive" in China, suggesting they may inflame tensions at a time when its business practices are under scrutiny by antitrust regulators around the world.
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Apple may have bitten off more than it can chew... I wonder how long it'll take to see a headline along the lines of "Chinese Communist Party Pressures Apple to Chill Out About Fees." :p
 
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ilikewhey

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ryan102 said:
Apple's usually quite quick kicking western apps off the store for breaching terms. For some reason, the same rules don't apply to China
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cause wechat, tencent are the main characters, in china it really doesn't matter what phone you own, most netizens in china 90% of the time only use 2-3 super apps like wechat and tencent.
 
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iZac

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Big risk but it might play better than expected, as the CCP have been trying to regulate these enormous Chinese tech companies for a while now. Since people like Jack Ma thought they were powerful enough to criticise the state-owned banking system, the CCP realised they've given way too much power to companies like Tencent, that gatekeep almost all conversation, social media and financial transactions of a billion+ people.
 
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ric22

ric22

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MacRumors said:


Apple is putting pressure on Tencent and ByteDance to make significant changes to two of China's most popular apps in order to remove loopholes that circumvent Apple's typical 30% commission, Bloomberg reports.

App-Store-Blue-Banner-Chinese-Flag-Feature.jpg

The loopholes are linked to mini-apps that allow users of Tencent's social-messaging app WeChat and ByteDance's short-video app Douyin to play games, hail taxis, and make online purchases without leaving the app.

Apple reportedly told both companies they need to prevent mini-app creators from including links to outside payment systems that circumvent its commission system. Apple said it would not approve future updates to WeChat or Douyin until the companies complied.

Apple also has asked Tencent to disable in-game chats between developers and users, because they can also be used to send links, according to Bloomberg. Tencent has reportedly pushed back against the idea due to the negative impact it would have on the game experience.

The report characterized the moves by Apple as "unusually aggressive" in China, suggesting they may inflame tensions at a time when its business practices are under scrutiny by antitrust regulators around the world.

An Apple spokesperson who contacted Bloomberg cited its guidelines that the sale of all digital goods must go through its system, and that its review team may reject app submissions that violate that policy.

Article Link: Apple Pressures ByteDance and Tencent Over App Fee Loopholes in China
Click to expand...
Haha, good luck changing anything WeChat do! They're a much more significant company in China than Apple is, and without WeChat on their phones approximately 0% of people would buy an iPhone there.
 
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