Apple approves WeChat update as talks with Tencent over app fees continue – report
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Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has cleared a version of Tencent’s (OTCPK:TCEHY) (OTCPK:TCTZF) WeChat app ahead of the iPhone 16’s launch on Monday, Bloomberg News reported.
The move provides more time for ongoing talks about changes the U.S. tech giant wanted to the Chinese social media platform. Apple approved a WeChat update for the iOS which Tencent had submitted this week. The updated version adds new features like WeChat Moments and live-streaming, the report added, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Last month, Tencent revealed that it was in talks with Apple about sharing the revenue that goes through its WeChat mini-games. The Chinese tech giant was exploring ways to offer in-app transactions through Apple’s iOS payment system. Such a move would potentially enable Apple to start taking a cut in in-game transactions.
The latest approval is likely to silence speculation in China that a dispute between the two companies over app store fees could escalate, even restricting WeChat from the new iPhones. Their disagreement stems from Apple’s insistence that it get a cut of transactions that flow through WeChat’s mini-games platform, the report noted.
Apple has urged Tencent to block links to external payment services within mini-games and stop developers from using the platform’s built-in messaging to usher gamers to other payment methods, thus avoiding paying Apple its usual cut of about 30%. The U.S. company had previously asked Tencent to disable in-game messaging entirely, but Tencent had rejected that as too drastic, the report added.
“We want to make it available on terms that we think are economically sustainable, that are also fair. And so that’s a discussion that’s underway, and we hope that the discussion leads to a positive outcome,” Tencent’s Chief Strategy Officer James Mitchell had said on the company’s earnings call in August.
Apple is slated to unveil the new iPhone 16 on Sept. 9. Meanwhile, its Chinese rival Huawei Technologies is planning to launch new products just hours after Apple’s marquee event.