Update 9:34am PT: There is no direct deal between Apple and Tencent for the 15% commission rate on WeChat mini games and apps. Instead, Tencent is taking advantage of Apple’s new App Store Mini Apps Partner Program, which launched for all developers today. Tencent, like all developers, will first have to apply to the program.
Members of the program earn 85% of qualifying In‑App Purchase sales within qualifying mini apps.
The original story via Bloomberg is below.
Apple’s App Store commission might be under threat in multiple countries around the world, but the company has just gained a huge new source of commission thanks to a WeChat deal struck in China.
The situation arises because the way most Chinese iPhone users buy apps is very different to anywhere else in the world …
How Chinese iPhone users buy apps
As we’ve noted in the past, the vast majority of Chinese residents all use a single app called WeChat. With more than a billion users, it effectively acts more like a second iPhone operating system than a standalone app.
WeChat is the only app opened by a typical Chinese iPhone user. Almost everything they do with their phone is performed through an enormous range of mini-apps within it. This includes messaging, paying bills, booking a taxi, ordering food online, buying movie tickets, playing games, checking in for a flight, sending money to friends, booking a doctor’s appointment, getting a bank statement, searching for a book, dating, and even donating to charity.
A survey of more than a million Chinese iPhone users back in 2020 found that 95% of them would abandon iPhone rather than give up WeChat.
The problem for Apple is that purchases made through these mini-apps don’t usually generate commissions for the company. Instead, most app creators direct users to external payment systems.
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