iTunes Movies and iBooks Store Mysteriously Go Down in China

[MacRumors]

Both iTunes Movies and the iBooks Store have gone down in China, with the digital fronts of both stores replaced with an "unavailable" message. The outage was first noticed via multiple reports on popular Chinese social network Sina Weibo (via AppleInsider).

While both storefronts are experiencing outages, Apple's status page in the country indicates that all services are up and running. It's unclear what caused the outages, but AppleInsider says it received unverified reports claiming that Apple pulled the two digital storefronts because of a pending government investigation into its business practices.

The mysterious outages come nearly seven months after Apple launched the iTunes Movies and iBooks Stores in the country, which marked the first time Apple's customers in China had access to its entertainment ecosystem. Apple launched Apple Music in China at the same time as iTunes Movies and the iBooks Store; Apple Music, however, has not experienced any outages.

China has become increasingly important to the Cupertino company over the past couple years. After the Americas, China is Apple's second largest market in terms of revenue.

Article Link: iTunes Movies and iBooks Store Mysteriously Go Down in China

 

[Gav2k]

It's the government and aliens

 

[Mums]

"Mysteriously go down" = censored.

 

[Pbrutto]

It's not like Apple hasn't had a problem with that here in the US and failed to acknowledge it till hours later....

 

[HiRez]

I guess the Chinese found 50 Shades of Gray as awful as we did and decided drastic action was necessary.

 

[pat500000]

They probably robbed the App Store.

 

[Kajje]

Was there while it was still open. Couldn't read a single word. Maybe it was in Chinese, maybe it was already broken. Who will tell.

 

[bpcookson]

Maybe they're finally fixing iBooks? I remember a time when I didn't need to use bookmarks but now I can't even rotate my device without bookmarking first. ::sad panda::

 

[nicho]

Maybe they're finally fixing iBooks? I remember a time when I didn't need to use bookmarks but now I can't even rotate my device without bookmarking first. ::sad panda::

Fixing it... But only in China? Huh?

 

[einsteinbqat]

This is China. It's probably some sort of censorship.

 

[nicho]

This is China. It's probably some sort of censorship.

Agreed. Shortly after Apple Music launched here wasn't there some kind of news story that everything would have to go through the censors and it put AM in danger? I'm guessing instead iBooks and iTunes fell foul; maybe they were selling unedited versions of some films?

 

[x0vash0x]

Agreed. Shortly after Apple Music launched here wasn't there some kind of news story that everything would have to go through the censors and it put AM in danger? I'm guessing instead iBooks and iTunes fell foul; maybe they were selling unedited versions of some films?

iBooks didn't have an international section. Everything on the iBooks China store was in Chinese. There were no English copies. This is actually a common complaint about the iBooks Store: the lack of international sections.

iTunes was more interesting. They had a lot of rather 'interesting' movies that I was surprised to see on the store. The Patriot was a good example of a movie I saw listed and thought 'Huh... Didn't expect the censors would like that'

Apple Music has no problems. Apple Music works very well and reliably so in China.

But, it's at least more reliable than Google in China.

 

[nicho]

iBooks didn't have an international section. Everything on the iBooks China store was in Chinese. There were no English copies. This is actually a common complaint about the iBooks Store: the lack of international sections.

iTunes was more interesting. They had a lot of rather 'interesting' movies that I was surprised to see on the store. The Patriot was a good example of a movie I saw listed and thought 'Huh... Didn't expect the censors would like that'

Apple Music has no problems. Apple Music works very well and reliably so in China.

But, it's at least more reliable than Google in China.

Just because someone translated a book into Chinese doesn't mean it meets the censors approval. Far from it, perhaps a book they didn't like is worse when translated into Chinese because it is more easily accessible than one in a foreign language...

I don't know if I'm just unlucky but I find Apple Music slow on my iPhone; things I would expect to load quickly just don't. However, we pay 1/10th of the price they do in the UK for example so I can't complain too much. It's almost certainly server related, though, given my iTunes on my computer can vary between the full 100mbps and barey 1mbps when downloading apps etc from iTunes.

 

[x0vash0x]

Just because someone translated a book into Chinese doesn't mean it meets the censors approval. Far from it, perhaps a book they didn't like is worse when translated into Chinese because it is more easily accessible than one in a foreign language...

I don't know if I'm just unlucky but I find Apple Music slow on my iPhone; things I would expect to load quickly just don't. However, we pay 1/10th of the price they do in the UK for example so I can't complain too much. It's almost certainly server related, though, given my iTunes on my computer can vary between the full 100mbps and barey 1mbps when downloading apps etc from iTunes.

I actually don't think it's a censorship issue. It's easy to find copies of 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and other Anti-Establishment books on Chinese websites, both English and Chinese. As long as the book isn't critical of the CCP itself or particular leaders, it's not that big of an issue.

Plus, if China wanted to block iTunes, it wouldn't let the store front resolve at all. It would be blocked giving people a 404 or a timeout page. The fact that the store front is resolving tells me it's some kind of technical issue, rather than an outright block.

The internet to overseas connections has been incredibly slow the past few weeks. I'm thinking China has been throttling overseas connections because of the Panama Papers which has made the iTunes store incredibly slow. So, while Apple figures out how to resolve the issue (probably more data centers in China) it just took down the store.

 

[Scrivener]

It's the government and aliens

They call it "displeased". Anything, absolutely anything that even jiggles their power is displeasing.

 

[nicho]

Plus, if China wanted to block iTunes, it wouldn't let the store front resolve at all. It would be blocked giving people a 404 or a timeout page. The fact that the store front is resolving tells me it's some kind of technical issue, rather than an outright block.

You definitely have a point there. I had problems with Apple Music all day yesterday and it was a different experience - it just wouldn't load anything at all.

 

[x0vash0x]

You definitely have a point there. I had problems with Apple Music all day yesterday and it was a different experience - it just wouldn't load anything at all.

That's weird. I don't have a problem with Apple Music. I'm in Hefei, Anhui and listening to Apple music is fine. Trying to go to the iTunes store still gives me "Movie Store is Unavailable" but the App Store works fine. So, the only thing I'm having issues with is the iTunes Store. I tried to download a copy of a movie from the store and it says 'Unavailable.

Interestingly enough, I'm able to access to the U.S store fine. So, they're clearly not blocking the iTunes store. Apple just took down access to the Chinese iTunes store for some unknown reason.