Apple Reaches Deal to Take Billions of Dollars in China's WeChat

[mdriftmeyer]

I’m surprised Tencent agreed to this. Great news for Apple’s bottom line.

Sweeney owns 41.4% of Epic Games. Tencent owns 35%, Disney owns 9%, Sony owns 5.4%, etc.

Tencent earns 48.3% revenues from gaming. The Apple ecosystem is a huge gaming market for iOS. They are looking for new avenues to expand into and Sweeney is a headache.

 

[coolfactor]

I miss the Apple that was focused on amazing hardware, with polished software to match.

Essentially ongoing "Service" revenue is needed to keep the engine running. Hardware sales are not sufficient. Many consumers, myself included, hold onto Apple hardware for several years without making any hardware purchases. But Apple happily takes $20/month from my pocket for iCloud and related services.

We live in a new world.

But 15% for mini-apps within WeChat? I'm curious how these apps are developed. Within Xcode? Hosted by Apple? What is the cost to Apple that warrants this commission fee?

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Two prime examples of the virulent lazy cynicism that is as smug as it is wrong (and, obviously, intellectually lazy). Apple is very different from Google, Meta et al. Doesn‘t mean they don‘t make mistakes, but their DNA is worlds apart.

People just don’t understand why “being tracked via companies you’re not directly doing business with” is a problem. Either that, or they’re against third parties tracking individuals until Apple says, “Yeah, we’re against that, too, and this is what we’re going to do to curtail it.”

 

[wowotoe]

Googled Wechat's 2024 revenue, they earned 5.6 billion USD just for the mini-games section. Not including other types of mini-apps.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Essentially ongoing "Service" revenue is needed to keep the engine running. Hardware sales are not sufficient. Many consumers, myself included, hold onto Apple hardware for several years without making any hardware purchases. But Apple happily takes $20/month from my pocket for iCloud and related services.

We live in a new world.

But 15% for mini-apps within WeChat? I'm curious how these apps are developed. Within Xcode? Hosted by Apple? What is the cost to Apple that warrants this commission fee?

You mean within the WeChat app that’s downloaded from the App Store and literally runs on an iPhone?

 

[bLackjackj]

Always a good day, when Macrumors pulls out the Apple Ashtray 😏🚬

 

[SFjohn]

there was a lawsuit and they had to pay roughly 100M (think it started in france), where they proved siri was listening to you , where apple used that data, and also sold it to third party contractors I believe.

No, Apple has denied any wrongdoing in the lawsuit and stated that Siri data has never been sold to anyone or used to build marketing profiles. The company agreed to a $95 million settlement to avoid further litigation, but it maintains that it did not improperly record conversations without consent. 😇

 

[bmark]

Yeah, but it just affects those folks that are using Apple devices. So, likely somewhere around 200 million folks, give or take. Still a lot, just not 1 billion lot.

Almost 80% of people in China aged 16-64 use WeChat. It's a huge new revenue stream for Apple!

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Almost 80% of people in China aged 16-64 use WeChat. It's a huge new revenue stream for Apple!

I don’t disagree, but that doesn’t change the fact that, in total, Apple’s market is around 200 million.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

To me it sounds like Apple is not replacing WeChat's payment system. Rather Apple customers will have the opportunity to choose Apple's payment processing in some games if they prefer that.

That makes sense to me. I’d read an article recently about how the big App Marketplaces have been pulling in a 50% or more cut. Perhaps by offering consumers choice (something the EU could stand to learn), they will reduce the pressure on them.

 

[eXan]

I am curious about how WeChat, Alipay and such already exist and are readily available in the AppStore, while being essentially stores themselves, yet Apple is fighting various third parties against those running their own stores on Apple's platform?

 

[svish]

Looks like with this deal, Apple is assured of huge sum of money yearly for years to come. Good deal for Apple!

 

[Frantisekj]

This is such an odd story.

So it's a payment processing deal?
For Apps distributed via WeChat (not the App Store)

...and at 15%!?

This feels like there's some big component we are not being told about.

Apple will continue produce in China and there can be some agreement in AI with regulators probably. I think we will see in coming months

 

[Crzyrio]

my point speaks to a broader, systemic issue . while I agree that arguing with china is much harder, perhaps impossible even, the other points are proof that apple isn't exactly clean . you musn't take those points as isolated problematics, but rather see what they depict as a bigger picture , and the underlying hypocrisy , or the lack of congruence in the image they're showing, and the actions they effectively take .

Things are not black and white. And no one is saying apple is perfect or clean, I think you are overthinking this way to much. The world is not against you.

Apple taking a stand against China by standing on principles causes more harm to chinese consumers than if they worked with the government to get completely banned.