On January 25 this year, Apple officially announced that it would make changes to iOS, Safari and the App Store in the EU in compliance with the provisions of the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). Starting from March this year, users and developers in 27 countries in the European Union will begin to enjoy the benefits of the new regulations through the iOS 17.4 Beta version. Specifically: The App Store will lower the commission rate for digital goods and services within the EU (commonly known as the "Apple tax"), with the standard rate significantly reduced from 30% to 17%; the above figures do not include payment processing fees and core technology usage fee. Apple will open its third-party app store to EU users, install apps through websites outside the Apple ecosystem ("app sideloading"), and allow users to set third-party browsers as their default browser. Third-party payment processing systems other than Apple Pay have also been liberalized. If developers are willing to continue using Apple Pay, they will need to bear an additional 3% handling fee, which is optional. It is no exaggeration to say that Apple’s concessions in the EU are epoch-making. Previously, there have been many antitrust lawsuits against Apple in the United States, Japan and other countries. The initiators of the lawsuits include famous application developers such as Epic Games. Their demands are similar: to reduce the "Apple tax" ratio and open third-party application stores. Unfortunately, to date, the vast majority of lawsuits have not produced any substantive results. The main basis for Apple's self-defense is the "Walled Garden" theory: unlike open source systems like Android, Apple has absolute control over its software ecosystem, thus ensuring user safety and helping to reduce low-quality applications. Shut out. Of course, Apple has also made some limited concessions, such as launching a small and medium-sized developer program starting in 2020. Developers with an annual income (excluding commissions) of less than US$1 million can enjoy a lower commission rate; in Japan, readers Type of APP allows external links to jump. However, the impact of the above concessions is very limited and not enough to satisfy the majority of developers. This time, Apple’s concessions in the EU are completely different from before: for the first time, Apple users can use the third-party app market openly, and application developers can also conduct sales and promotions openly outside the Apple software ecosystem. . For the EU and the world, this is a landmark piece of digital economy antitrust legislation. From now on, Apple will only take a 17% commission on App Store revenue within the EU, and only a 10% commission on small and medium-sized developers - such a large reduction is obviously to better integrate with the third-party application market. compete. However, as the saying goes, "The wool comes from the sheep." The biggest beneficiaries of the reduction in commission rates are ordinary users. Moreover, the subsequent effects of Apple’s “tear down the wall” within the EU have far-reaching reference significance for regulators in other countries and regions. Because in the past many years, an important argument for Apple's refusal to "tear down the wall" is that "a closed ecosystem is more conducive to user privacy and data security." Now, the launch of the iOS 17.4 Beta version in the European Union provides an excellent opportunity for practice: if it turns out that Apple’s changes to the regulations have not had a significant adverse impact on user security, it will prove that Apple’s previous self-defense was exaggerated. suspicion. It is conceivable that Apple will face increasing regulatory pressure in other major markets around the world, and it is not even ruled out that it will actively make concessions.
Unfortunately, the concessions made by Apple in the EU are invalid for Chinese users. As Apple's second largest source of revenue in the world (after the United States), Chinese users and developers have never enjoyed any "preferential treatment" provided by Apple. By analyzing the data, we can see that whether in horizontal comparison with other countries and regions or with the domestic Android application market, Apple China’s application revenue commission rate appears to be too high:Current situation:
Question:
Solution:
1. Follow the "EU model"
2. Reduce the commission rate in China
Safeguard measures:
Looking forward to:
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