So what you're saying is Tim Cook's statement that "We treat every developer the same.... rules apply evenly to everyone" is a giant load of đź’©
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Apple Pressures ByteDance and Tencent Over App Fee Loopholes in China
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I don't think Tencent or ByteDance ever paid the 30% in the first place.
And it isn't a loophole. It is not a loophole in anywhere else but China. i.e Apple let them have it.
And it isn't a loophole. It is not a loophole in anywhere else but China. i.e Apple let them have it.
They gave apps like Facebook and Uber similar ultimatums for their respective violations.
Halting updates doesn't immediately deactivate the app. It simply prevents devs from fixing bugs and introducing features.
Putting aside whether the 30% is excessive, if they don't try to enforce their rules and start being selective about which apps are subject to the commission, they might be accused of playing favorites and abusing their market position.
WeChat is essentially your OS in China. If they remove it from the App Store it will be absolutely catastrophic for Apple's sales and reputation in China forever. Imagine you bought an iPhone that you now can't return and suddenly you can't do anything online in your country because all of it is a monopoly of Tencent. You can do the same stuff you can do with a Nokia 3310 in the US in 2024. From payments to online shopping and chat, everything happens there.
Proof that this has absolutely nothing to do with security and everything to do with Apple's continued rent-seeking.
I think the best course of action for Apple would be to stop allowing further updates, fall further and further back in terms of sales in China, eventually retreat from the Chinese market.
Then they can finally going all in on being high and mighty about privacy and system and user security in the west without looking like total hypocrites.
Then they can finally going all in on being high and mighty about privacy and system and user security in the west without looking like total hypocrites.
Doing this would only make sense if they are planning to completely withdraw from the Chinese market.
Selling phone which can’t receive WeChat updates would be an absolute untenable position as it would cause a slow bleed of Chinese users who 100% need WeChat for daily mission-critical tasks and definitely won’t pay premium prices cor phones with an outdated version of the App which might have unfixed bugs and missing features. Plus eventually Tencent would tell Apple: here our latest App, either publish it or completely remove us from the App Store and we’ll just tell our customers (100% of the Chinese population) that pur service isn’t supported on iPhone anymore due to Apple’s policies.
There's still India though.
Last year, India passed their Digital Personal Data Protection bill. The bill "would allow the government and its agencies to access user data from companies and personal data of individuals without their consent as well as collect private data."
This is as bad as Apple handing over the keys to China for their data centers.
Apple's going all-in on India despite the privacy risks to their users.
They can't be compared to WeChat- the scope of WeChat is exponentially greater.
I was thinking a little bit along these lines as well. It sounds like some of the things Apple has a problem with are also things the CCP might not like. For example, private messages sending unauthorized information, or bypassing fees that they would be getting part of.
This might not be such a bold move as it seems on the surface.
Spot on. I lived in China. WeChat is obligatory for the entire population, and Apple have no leverage to tell them how to operate. iPhones without WeChat would serve no purpose in that country.
I agree this is going too far. If Apple is not incurring any operating costs, they are not entitled to a cut of transactions. It's pure greed.
That's just weird to me. How many years has WeChat had this iron grip on the population? Why isn't that a concern?
I recently saw a report that it is concerning the government. It was written by a western journalist, though. If you don't play games it is potentially the only app you need.
Edit: How many years? A decade+ it's been popular, but by 2016 it had evolved into the everything app.
its not just wechat, tencent and alibaba, the 3 big super app, you literally do everything in these apps, paying, sharing, browsing, messaging, its a whole ecosystem inside a ecosystem, its not a concern cause all these apps have to comply with CCP, just look at what happened to jack ma when he stepped out the line.
WeChat is the most significant app of all, though. "The one app to rule them all"
What I don't understand is why they're poking the bear now instead of waiting until these accusations result in a legal settlement. It seems like whoever decided to send these emails to Tencent and ByteDance doesn't have a full picture of Apple's position in China. Given the stakes, it's not unthinkable that in 6 months China will require smartphone companies to allow users to access to third-party app stores and select a preferred one during device setup.
It's refreshing to see comments here that call out Apple for being greedy.
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.
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
China is next with its own DMA.
They’re going to tell Apple to pound sand and Apple is going to roll over like a bunch of other things related to PRChina.