[Introduction] Choose one between WeChat and iPhone? What’s the truth? China Fund News reporter Taylor brothers and sisters, the U.S. stock market is on holiday tonight. September 2 (Monday) is the U.S. Labor Day (Labor Day, also called Labor Day) holiday, and the U.S. stock mark

[Introduction] Choose one between WeChat and iPhone? What's the truth?

China Fund News reporter Taylor

Brothers and sisters, the U.S. stock market is on holiday tonight. September 2 (Monday) is the U.S. Labor Day (labor day, also called Labor Day) holiday, and the U.S. stock market is closed for one day. Let’s briefly look at domestic news.

iphone and WeChat are about to choose one?

html Hot searches on Weibo on the evening of the 12th were dominated by rumors about WeChat and Apple.

There are rumors that WeChat may not support iPhone 16, and iPhone will not be able to use WeChat once it is upgraded to ios18.2 system.

Taylor later learned from people familiar with the matter that the news was untrue.

According to Taylor’s observation, the reason for this matter is still because of the 30% Apple tax dispute. What is the “Apple tax”? Generally speaking, whenever an Apple user pays to download an app through the Apple mobile app store or purchases digital goods or services within the app, he or she needs to first transfer money to the Apple payment system, which is similar to a shopping mall cashier, and Apple retains 30% as tolls. The remaining 70% is then transferred to app developers. For example, if you tip 100 yuan to a live broadcast anchor, Apple will take away 30 yuan.

Previously, Apple had pressured Tencent and Bytedance to close loopholes that were used by its in-app creators to direct users to external payment systems, thereby bypassing Apple's usual charges. 30% commission.

In May and June this year, Apple issued warnings to Tencent and Bytedance respectively, requiring these two companies to plug the loopholes used by developers in their applications to lead users to external payment systems, otherwise the Apple app store Important updates from WeChat and Douyin may be rejected.

WeChat is an app that more than a billion Chinese users rely on for everything from paying bills to booking movie tickets — but Apple’s fees are waived for many of those payments. However, in-app content and other online entertainment, such as mini-games, still need to follow iOS’s revenue sharing rules.

Tencent and ByteDance have recruited thousands of smaller game and app developers to create content for their ecosystems on WeChat and Douyin. As these mini-games grew in popularity, developers began to make money by selling in-game items, and many found ways to bypass Apple's payment system to boost their already slim profits. This practice is called "guidance", which is to guide players away from the large platform.

WeChat mini-game creators will use some system "loopholes" to introduce users to external payment systems, thus bypassing Apple Pay's share of the payment. Apple even asked Tencent to disable in-game chat between creators and players because it could also be used to circumvent Apple Pay.

During the August earnings call, Tencent Chief Strategy Officer James Michel admitted for the first time that Tencent was negotiating with Apple on the revenue of WeChat mini-games and exploring ways to provide in-app transactions through Apple’s iOS payment system. Way. Michel said that Tencent has not yet charged for mini-games through iOS in-app purchases and is discussing whether to enable this feature, which will benefit developers, users, Apple and Tencent.

Many companies have "hardened" Apple

In 2019, the foreign music streaming giant Spotify launched a lawsuit, arguing that Apple abused its market dominance to charge "Apple tax" and violated the anti-circumvention principle by not allowing apps to access the platform. External paid links.

In 2020, the game "Fortnite" developed by the American game company epic games was officially removed from the shelves by Apple because it bypassed the App Store and allowed players to pay directly in the game. Afterwards, epic games filed a lawsuit against Apple.

On March 4 this year, the European Union issued a sky-high fine of 1.84 billion euros to Apple for abusing its dominant position in the music streaming application distribution market.

Apple prohibits music streaming app developers from fully informing iOS users of alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of their apps, the European Commission said. It also prohibits them from providing any instructions on how to subscribe to such services.

The European Commission said that when determining the amount of the fine, it took into account the duration and severity of the infringements, as well as Apple's total turnover and market capitalization, and concluded that the total fine of more than 1.8 billion euros is proportional to Apple's global revenue. necessary to achieve deterrence.

Later, Apple made a series of adjustments in the European Union, including a significant reduction in the "Apple tax" from the original 30% and 15% (for small and medium-sized developers with an annual income of US$1 million) to developers, respectively. Lowered to 17% and 10%.