48 Chinese developers jointly report Apple

According to the Daily Economic News, on June 22, 48 small and medium-sized developers distributing iOS applications in the Chinese market jointly submitted a "Joint Report Letter from Developers on Apple's Abuse of Monopoly Position in the Chinese Market" to the State Administration for Market Regulation, accusing Apple of engaging in acts such as restrictive trading, discriminatory treatment, tying sales, and unfair high prices in the Chinese market. They also demanded that Apple open up third - party application distribution, in - app third - party payment, and external link payment channels.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time Chinese developers have reported such issues.

As early as August 2017, domestic relevant developers, along with teams of lawyers and legal experts, held a press conference. They believed that the App Store operated by Apple was suspected of violating the law, infringing on rights, and engaging in monopoly behavior during its long - term operation, and thus reported the matter to two anti - monopoly law enforcement agencies, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission.

The recent report stems from a major adjustment of Apple's taxes and fees in the Brazilian market recently. After years of investigation by the Brazilian antitrust agency CADE, Apple officially "lowered taxes" in Brazil on June 19, and simultaneously opened up third - party downloads, external link payments, and lowered the in - app purchase rate of Apple applications. So far, three major overseas markets, namely the European Union, Japan, and Brazil, have all completed the model of "lowering the in - app purchase rate of Apple applications + opening up third - party payments + opening up external link payments + opening up third - party application distribution", giving developers and consumers more choices for payment and download channels.

In contrast, in China, on March 13, Apple announced that based on communication with Chinese regulatory authorities, the commission rate of the App Store for iOS and iPadOS in the Chinese mainland would be adjusted, from a maximum of 30% to 25%. At the same time, for small and medium - sized developers with an annual income of less than $1 million and eligible Apple App in - app purchase commissions under the "Mini - Program Partner Program" and the automatic renewal subscription commissions after the first year, the rate will be further reduced from the current 15% to 12%. However, external link payments and third - party application distribution are still not open.

Since the launch of the App Store in 2008, Apple has established a set of globally unified rules: it charges a commission of 15% - 30% on the in - app digital product and service revenues of App Store developers. Specifically, for applications with an annual income of over $1 million, Apple takes a 30% share of the digital content consumption within the app, while for small and medium - sized developers with an annual income of less than $1 million, the commission rate is 15%. The remaining share is then transferred to the corresponding App developers, commonly known as the "Apple tax".

Over the past few years, Apple has been involved in continuous disputes and lawsuits related to the "Apple tax". Not only large - scale developers like Epic Games and Spotify, but also governments and regulatory agencies in many countries and regions such as the European Union, the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the Netherlands have successively joined the resistance against the "Apple tax".

In June 2025, Apple cited a research report jointly released by Boston University and Analysis Group, stating that in 2024, the App Store achieved a developer turnover and sales volume of $1.3 trillion, mainly including three major sectors: digital products and services, physical products and services, and in - app advertising, accounting for 10.11%, 78.3%, and 11.58% respectively. According to Apple's commission - charging rules, the platform usually only charges commissions on digital products and services, which is about 10% of the above - mentioned revenue.

The report shows that over 90% of the revenue achieved by the App Store does not require any commission payment to Apple and belongs entirely to the developers. Apple may hope to use this to illustrate the contributions made by the App Store to developers and even the world economy, so as to alleviate the long - standing accusations and concerns about the "Apple tax" from the outside world.

The data disclosed in the report shows that the developer turnover and sales volume achieved by the App Store throughout the year increased from $514 billion in 2019 to $1.3 trillion in 2024. By region, in 2024, China became the country that contributed the most revenue with $539 billion, followed by the United States and Europe, which contributed $406 billion and $148 billion respectively.

The "App Store Global Ecosystem Report" released on Apple's official website at the end of 2025 shows that in 2024, the transaction volume of digital products and services in the Chinese App Store was approximately $23 billion, second only to the United States' $53 billion and higher than Europe's $20 billion.

A report written by Ju Heng, an associate professor at the School of Business of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and published on Apple's official website states that from 2019 to 2023, the developer turnover and sales volume facilitated by the Apple App Store ecosystem in China increased from 1.65 trillion yuan to 3.76 trillion yuan, of which over 95% belongs entirely to developers and enterprises of all sizes without any commission payment to Apple.

This report also shows that among Chinese developers who paid commissions in 2023, more than half adopted a 15% commission rate. At the same time, in - app advertising revenue is an important source of income for game developers (especially small - scale game developers), and the App Store does not charge commissions on this type of income. Therefore, the effective commission rate for large - scale developers is mostly lower than the 30% cap.

It is worth noting that Apple has reached separate cooperation arrangements with Tencent and ByteDance respectively. In September 2025, the App Store announced support for Douyin Pay. After being bound to an Apple account, it can be used for payment in scenarios such as the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, and Apple Care+. In November 2025, Apple announced the "Mini - Program Partner Program", reducing the transaction commission for mini - programs such as WeChat mini - games from 30% to 15%.

Apple's latest financial report for the first fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2026 shows that the service revenue during the period reached a record high of $30 billion, a year - on - year increase of 14%. Service revenue includes iCloud storage and other subscriptions, paid applications and in - app advertising, as well as payments related to web searches.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Jiemian News", author: Peng Peng. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.