APPLE Inc. has been pressuring Beijing-based ByteDance and Tencent to close loopholes in China that funnel customers to external payment systems for making in-app purchases, yicai.com reported. Apple deducts a certain percentage of money paid by users to developers of all smartphone apps installed through Apple Store. It varies in different countries and regions and could be as high as 30% of the fee on the Chinese mainland. This means that for every yuan (US$0.14) spent by a user in a game or short drama that he/she downloads from the iOS store, 0.3 yuan will go to Cupertino-based Apple. Apple is pressurizing Tencent Holdings, operator of social media platform WeChat, and ByteDance Technology, owner of short video platform Douyin, to stop users from making payments for in-app purchases outside of the U.S. tech giant’s ecosystem, Chinese media reports said, citing industry insiders. It is common practice for developers of mini-games, which are short games that is usually part of another game, and short dramas, to use every means to bypass Apple’s payment system, the report said. With mini-games, for example, users can opt on entering the game to pay directly to the customer service center rather than Apple. Reports indicate that this pressure campaign began in May. Apple has allegedly warned Tencent that it will reject crucial WeChat updates if the Shenzhen-based firm doesn’t eliminate the ability for users to make payments outside of Apple’s ecosystem. Apple is still in talks with both firms, but no agreement has been reached yet, the report said. Tencent and ByteDance declined to comment. China’s mini-game market was worth over 40 billion yuan last year and should top 60 billion yuan this year, third-party statistics showed. (SD-Agencies) | 