Thanks to China, Apple finally allows the "reward" function

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Sina Technology News, Beijing time, September 18th morning news, Apple’s recent update to its global App Store guidelines shows that the company now allows users to give cash rewards to each other - although this behavior is widely popular in China, Apple previously had a love-hate relationship with it.

The move shows how Apple is adapting to China's massive tipping economy, while also highlighting Tencent's enormous control over Chinese internet culture and the state of foreign companies operating in China.

Earlier this year, major Chinese blogs and news outlets lamented the news that Tencent’s WeChat had removed a tipping feature from its iOS app that allowed users to tip public accounts with cash from their virtual WeChat wallets.

Tencent's move may be due to pressure from Apple. The company has set strict rules: whenever users buy virtual goods, Apple will be forced to take a 30% cut of all transactions. They call this behavior "in-app purchases." However, the popular reward function in WeChat is not controlled by Apple, so when users give rewards to public accounts, Apple cannot take any share.

In June this year, Apple updated its App Store guidelines: Unless users use virtual currency to reward, this behavior will be prohibited. This move indicates that Apple will take a share of the revenue.

The guidelines at the time read: "Apps may use in-app purchase currency to allow users to 'tip' digital content providers within the app. Apps may not contain buttons, external links, or other behavioral activation patterns to guide users to purchase mechanisms other than in-app purchases."

While this provision remains in the recently updated guidelines, Apple has added an additional provision that allows tipping without paying Apple a fee. The new provision, 3.2.1, reads:

“Apps may allow users to send monetary gifts to one another without using in-app purchase as long as the following conditions are met: (a) the gift must be of the gifter’s own choice; and (b) 100% of the funds must be given to the gift recipient. However, if the gift is related to obtaining digital content or services, in-app purchase must be used.”

The move suggests that Apple will allow WeChat public accounts to reward users. But one question remains: Will the WeChat reward button return? Does "digital content" include articles or videos on WeChat public accounts? Neither Apple nor Tencent commented on this.

But in any case, China's tipping economy has left Apple with no choice but to actively integrate into it - in addition to WeChat, many streaming apps also adopt this model. According to statistics, about 11% of WeChat users have used the tipping function, and 37% of them said that they tip between 5 and 10 RMB per month. In fact, it is not uncommon for WeChat public accounts to earn hundreds of dollars a day just from the tipping function.

Tencent has a firm grip on China's social media and gaming industries thanks to WeChat's massive user base of 963 million. Some even suspect that WeChat's popularity in China could lead to a slowdown in Apple's sales in the country, as users may ditch iPhones for cheaper phones until Apple allows them to use all of WeChat's features.

This also means that Apple must establish a close relationship with Tencent. In fact, they seem to have already started. Apple CEO Tim Cook called Tencent one of the company's "greatest developers" in a recent earnings call, adding that Apple "looks forward to deepening its collaboration with them to create even better experiences for our mutual users in China." (Shu Yu)