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Apple told WeChat and other Chinese social apps to disable “tip” functions,

19 points| xbmcuser | 8 years ago |wsj.com | reply

46 comments

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[+] mankash666|8 years ago|reply
China seems the perfect place to call Apple's B.S. policies out. The government isn't afraid of confronting a global powerhouse if it threatens domestic companies with unfair trade practices. And Apple's whole running of the app store approval and payments policy and process is nothing but unfair.
[+] chickenbane|8 years ago|reply
Please, China doesn't give a shit about the Apple's app store and payment policy. It's a relationship; Apple does shit for China, (e.g., I'm sure the app store in China is heavily censored), China complies with some Apple pushback. They only disabled the functionality on iPhones, so the only reason they implemented it was on Apple's demand.
[+] IBM|8 years ago|reply
I'd bet on Apple having more leverage with the government than Tencent just because Apple indirectly employs millions of workers.
[+] valuearb|8 years ago|reply
In what way are their policies unfair?
[+] Grazester|8 years ago|reply
I wonder how long the iphone would last in China without WeChat if they were to ever decide to just not publish their app in the app store because of this.
[+] ksec|8 years ago|reply
I dont quite understand why Apple requires 30% cut here.

There are many other payment services App that allow you to transfer money from one person to another. And those are free from the 30% tax.

So why does tipping requires 30% cut?

( Both are totally different to In-App Purchase )

[+] valuearb|8 years ago|reply
Apple doesn't charge for person to person transfers.

They charge for selling content through their platform. Tipping was just a way to skirt that rule.

[+] Veratyr|8 years ago|reply
Because Apple wants a 30% cut and is big enough to force developers to accept it.
[+] pmontra|8 years ago|reply
Non paywalled article at https://www.macrumors.com/2017/05/18/apple-chinese-chat-apps...
[+] MiddleEndian|8 years ago|reply
As a former MacRumors regular, I find it interesting to see that the even the Mac fans there are not in favor of Apple's decision, with a notable exception being a user who mentioned that without the app store, the apps would be nothing.

WeChat is huge in China. It's used for everything. It's bigger than Apple's or Google's app stores. I expect (and hope for) Apple to lose this battle.

[+] valuearb|8 years ago|reply
"We don't charge anything as the platform, but Apple gets 30 percent for doing nothing," one of the executives reportedly fumed."

Uh, Apple's servers hosted and distributed hundreds of millions of copies of your apps. For free.

Apple is clearly doing the right thing here. They can't charge developers 30% to sell apps and content through their platform, then allow one developer to skirt the rule by calling it "tipping".

Tencent can just man up and pay the thirty percent like the rest of us have to do.

[+] typednothing|8 years ago|reply
With IPhone's market share of just 9% in China, WeChat should drop support for the IPhone.
[+] captainmuon|8 years ago|reply
They probably have the resources to buy or develop a jailbreak. If not software then maybe even hardware via the connector, and have it installed in all those little telefone shops in China.