Apple is in negotiations with Tencent, but the apple is in bad shape

China has many specificities at Apple. The Beijing government has notably negotiated closer control of applications that enter and exit the App Store in the country. Recently, this is how the Radio France services leftthe iPhone app storein the Middle Kingdom, following a request from Beijing.

Among China's privileges compared to the rest of the world, the country's developers do not have to pay commission to Apple for in-app purchases. This famous 30% commission, which brought Apple to court (in its case against Epic Games) simply does not exist in China.

But things are about to change. Indeed, as a new report on the situation in the country explains, Apple is trying to set up its commission. The Apple brand has already managed to sell ByteDance, the behemoth behind the social network TikTok.

Tense negotiations

For three months, Apple's lawyers have been negotiating with another digital giant in China, Tencent. The company notably owns the social networkWeChat, the most popular in the country. In recent years, this application has become a real hub for the Chinese digital economy.

In fact, the bosses ofWeChathave allowed third-party developers to integrate microapps into their own service. To the point that today WeChat looks more like an operating system than a classic application like we are used to in the West.

Apple plays big

If Apple has managed to bring down all the countries in the world, and ByteDance in China, we can imagine that WeChat will follow suit. But in reality, the situation is more complex. WeChat is such a popular service, even more so than Facebook or Instagram in Europe, that it is at the center of the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

If Apple forces all these customers to choose between WeChat and the iPhone, it will be a disaster for Apple. Tencent knowing itself to be in a dominant position, the Chinese company has no desire to negotiate with Apple and the few attacks and threats from the Apple brand do not seem to have any effect on the Cupertino company.