On August 14th, Tencent Holdings released its latest performance report and responded to recent rumors of an "Apple tax" during a conference call. Tencent has stated that it is currently in negotiations with Apple and hopes to achieve a positive outcome.
According to the financial report, Tencent's revenue for the second quarter of 2024 was 161.12 billion yuan, with an estimated 161.35 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8%; The adjusted net profit for the second quarter was RMB 57.31 billion, a year-on-year increase of 53%.
According to financial reports, the combined monthly active accounts of WeChat and WeChat have further increased to 1.371 billion. In the second quarter, the user duration of WeChat mini programs increased by over 20% year-on-year, and the transaction volume facilitated through mini programs also achieved double-digit growth year-on-year.
Among them, the monthly active users of mini games reached 500 million, and the user usage time continued to grow. The total revenue of mini games increased by over 30% year-on-year. The mini game platform has served over 400000 developers, with over 240 games having quarterly revenue exceeding 10 million.
Recently, some media reported that Apple had put pressure on Tencent and ByteDance to "plug" payment loopholes in their applications - developers tried to guide users to external payment systems to avoid Apple's 30% commission; Otherwise, Apple will not approve the version update of WeChat and Tiktok.
However, neither ByteDance nor Tencent has made a public response to this. An Apple spokesperson stated that all sales of digital goods must go through its system, and its review team may reject applications that violate this policy.
During the earnings conference call, James Mitchell, Tencent's Chief Strategy Officer, stated that there is indeed a tense relationship between the gaming industry, digital content industry, and app stores, mainly due to the fees charged by app stores; The gaming industry generally believes that imposing a 30% fee on games and other digital content is a heavy burden.
James Mitchell stated that there is a misunderstanding in the media regarding some comments on mini games on the iOS platform, and currently Tencent has not made any revenue from "in app payments" for iOS mini games. If this business model can be implemented under reasonable conditions, it will not only benefit Tencent and Apple, but also greatly benefit game developers and users. We hope to launch this model under economically sustainable and fair conditions
He revealed that Tencent and Apple are currently in negotiations and hope to achieve a positive outcome, as this is a win-win situation. If there is no progress in the discussion, the status quo will remain. But if there is indeed progress in the discussion, it will bring incremental revenue to us, Apple, and game developers, while also providing a better experience for Apple users