The issue of the world's highest "Apple tax" has been criticized by domestic developers. Recently, Apple released a rare report on the revenue of Chinese developers and app ecosystems on its official website in China, stating that the App Store ecosystem has contributed to the "nearly doubling of Chinese developers' income since 2018, with over 95% of it fully owned by developers and companies without any commission paid to Apple," indirectly responding to the controversy over the "Apple tax".
The Caixin reporter noticed that Apple has cited an analysis and research report on the Apple ecosystem by Associate Professor Ju Heng from the School of Business at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. This move has attracted a lot of attention in the industry, and many practitioners have stated in interviews with Caixin reporters that the aforementioned viewpoint is not neutral and objective enough.
Liu Xu, a special researcher at the National Strategic Research Institute of Tsinghua University, told Caixin that "Apple has not stated that there is a significant cost difference between the US market and the Chinese market in the development and maintenance of its app store. However, the objective reality is that Chinese software developers need to pay a top commission of 30%, which is higher than that of app developers in the US market, as well as in the Korean and EU markets. This research report does not provide any reasonable explanation for this
He believes that Apple's statement exaggerates its value contribution but downplays its "tough" stance in China.
A reporter from Caixin News Agency sent an interview email to Apple asking how they viewed the relevant evaluation and whether they could further explain the situation of the "Apple Tax" collection in response to this side response. An Apple representative responded to the Caixin News Agency reporter, "We should not make a public comment
Professor Ju Heng's research shows that the App Store ecosystem in China has contributed to an increase in developer revenue and sales from 1.65 trillion yuan in 2019 to 3.76 trillion yuan in 2023, of which over 95% are entirely owned by developers and enterprises of all sizes, without the need to pay any commission to Apple. At the same time, most Chinese developers do not need to pay any commission to Apple, and more than half of the developers who paid commissions in 2023 enjoyed a preferential commission rate of 15%.
Meanwhile, Apple stated that the effective commission rate charged by the Chinese App Store is lower than the 30% cap commission rate applicable to large developers. For example, considering that Apple does not charge commissions for in app advertising revenue, the average effective commission rate for large game developers in 2023 is less than 20%.
But Liu Xu told Caixin reporters, "The Apple App Store does indeed only charge a top 30% commission for application software with a relatively low proportion, but the total amount of these software is not large, and the net profit contributed to Apple is also astonishing. However, these data were not reflected in the research report, and the legitimate rights and interests of these application software are also protected by China's Anti Monopoly Law
It is worth noting that in the article released this time, Apple also made a rare comparison between the "Apple Tax" and the "Android Tax": "Apple's commission rate for digital goods and services is globally unified, and Apple has not only never increased the commission rate, but has also introduced new commission reduction and preferential measures over time. In contrast, developers in the Chinese Android app market need to pay different levels of commission based on the services and income generated within the app, some of which can reach up to 50%
However, the Caixin reporter learned that the Apple App Store adopts different commission ratios for the Chinese and European and American markets, and adopts different strategies for third-party payments, which were not mentioned in the article.
Liu Xu told Caixin reporters that although the study listed Apple's different charging strategies in the United States, South Korea, and the European Union, it avoided the question of why Apple cannot treat the Chinese market and the European and American markets equally. He believes that differential treatment may be related to Apple's antitrust investigations and lawsuits in the United States, South Korea, and the European Union.
In early May this year, Caixin reporters interviewed technology manufacturers and app developers from multiple sources and learned that the "Apple Tax" is based on the closure of the Apple ecosystem and is suspected of abusing its market dominance. Among the top four revenue regions, China's Apple Tax rate is higher than that of Europe, America, and South Korea. This policy has a significant impact on Chinese app software developers. The industry is looking forward to a simultaneous anti-monopoly investigation against Apple in China and Europe and America, so that Apple's business in China can be rectified in sync with the EU market, and calls for healthy competition in operating systems.
On May 29th, a domestic intellectual property court ruled in the first instance of China's first consumer lawsuit against Apple for monopoly. The court found that Apple clearly has a dominant market position in the Chinese software market, but did not abuse its dominant position, and rejected the plaintiff Jin's claim. According to the judgment document, the plaintiff's core demands include stopping the unfair high price behavior of charging a 30% "Apple tax" and stopping the bundling behavior of "in app purchases" that force the use of Apple's payment system.
According to the latest data released by Apple, nearly half of the developers with revenue of 10 million yuan or more in 2023 had not yet entered the App Store or had revenue of less than 100000 yuan in 2018. Apple's statement is that this reflects the enormous business opportunities and growth potential that the App Store brings to developers.
How the controversy over the "Apple Tax" will develop in the future, Caixin reporters will continue to pay attention.