Engadget RSS Feed-Apple is fighting Tencent and ByteDance over in-app payments in China
August 2, 2024 3 min 540 words
西方媒体报道称，苹果公司正在中国就应用内支付问题与腾讯和字节跳动发生争执。报道称，苹果公司向这两家公司施压，要求他们关闭漏洞，阻止客户使用第三方支付选项。苹果公司要求腾讯在微信中禁用游戏创作者和玩家之间的聊天功能，并威胁字节跳动，如果不堵住让用户绕过苹果支付系统的漏洞，就不批准抖音更新。 该报道带有明显的偏见，试图将苹果公司描绘成一家咄咄逼人急于争夺佣金的企业。然而，报道也提到了中国监管机构对苹果公司此类行为的审查，以及苹果公司在中国市场面临的挑战。苹果公司在中国确实面临着复杂的监管环境和激烈的竞争，但报道没有提到苹果公司在中国也有很多成功案例，并且一直致力于深耕中国市场。此外，报道也没有全面介绍腾讯和字节跳动两家公司在中国互联网行业的垄断地位和不公平竞争问题。报道还忽略了苹果公司在中国创造的就业机会和对中国经济的贡献。总之，这篇报道有失公允，有选择地呈现事实，突出负面信息，忽略苹果公司在中国的积极作用和贡献。
Apple has been pressuring ByteDance and Tencent to close loopholes in China that funnel customers to external payment systems for making in-app purchases, according to a report by Bloomberg. Anyone living in the West knows the drill here. Apple wants that 30 percent commission.
Reporting indicates this pressure campaign began in May. Apple allegedly warned Tencent that it would reject crucial WeChat updates if it didn’t eliminate the ability for users to make payments outside of Apple’s ecosystem. Tencent complied with the original request, issuing an update in July, but Apple went one step further.
WeChat is home to thousands of third-party mini-games and experiences. Apple asked Tencent to disable in-game chat between creators and players, as that's another theoretical loophole that could funnel users to third-party payment systems. Tencent has yet to agree to this request.
Back in June, Apple reportedly did something similar with ByteDance. It threatened to withhold updates of Douyin, which is basically the Chinese version of TikTok, unless it plugged any gaps that steer users away from that much-coveted 30 percent commission. According to Bloomberg, ByteDance has yet to issue a formal response.
These are aggressive moves on the part of Apple. China is the world’s largest smartphone market, sure, but the iPhone isn’t the dominant brand throughout the country. As a matter of fact, the phone failed to crack the top five in sales last quarter and the company recently experienced a 6.5 percent decline in profits.
It’s also worth noting that both ByteDance and Tencent aren’t happy corporate warriors looking out for the little guy. These massive companies levy their own commissions on creators and likely didn’t want Apple cutting into their bottom lines.
An Apple spokesperson was unusually blunt in a statement to Bloomberg, simply saying that company guidelines dictate that the sale of all digital goods must go through its system and that the review team has the power to reject app submissions that violate that policy. Neither Tencent or ByteDance issued a comment to Bloomberg.
China, like the rest of the world, has been cracking down on walled gardens like Apple’s App Store. Despite the country’s hesitance to continue allowing closed ecosystems controlled by a single entity, Apple CEO Tim Cook is bullish about its prospects in China. “We continue to be confident in the long-term opportunity in China,” he said during a recent earnings call. “I don’t know how every chapter of the book reads, but we’re very confident in the long term.”
Apple is facing numerous legal hurdles all over the world regarding its Hungry Hungry Hippos approach to gobbling up commission fees. The European Commission issued a ruling that dictates it must allow app developers to steer users to payment systems and offers outside of the App Store. The company also faces potential fines from the EU, to the tune of ten percent of global annual revenue. As for the US, Epic sued Apple over its developer transaction fee policy and many other companies have expressed their own concerns. It's also worth nothing that Tencent owns a 40 percent stake in Epic Games.
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