Mini Apps Partner Program

15% is better for Apple than 0%, which is what they got prior. The developers were keeping 100% for themselves in those cases.

@Someone else I see why Apple wants to do it. I don’t see why Tencent does. It doesn’t seem like WeChat needs any help processing payments. They apparently already have 900 million active users with payment methods on file. What is IAP offering them that will help “grow their business”? Did they believe that Apple would kill their app if they didn’t accept the “help”?

@Michael,

Big caveat: I have never seen WeChat's mini apps/games not it's internal app directory other than a few videos of boring stuff that are basically web sites. Would love if someone had a link to videos of the most popular ones.

If I recall correctly, it's more of an issue of Tencent running an 'alternative app store' on iOS, which would seem to be against Apple's rules. There's been a tension between what WeChat did and what was allowed as these games sound like basically web sites accessed via WeChat... similar to, say, GeForce Now / Xbox / other streaming video games... but these aren't Safari web sites, these are embedded in WeChat. This is also probably why Facebook gave up on in-app games (which used to be quite popular... Words with Friends, etc.)

So... I'm guessing Apple is relieved that this is taken care of, and the big stick would have been to force WeChat to remove their app directory, I guess?

I wonder if Tencent made money off these games -- sounds like many of them used external payment processors -- so this will be interesting to see. I wonder if Tencent will start charging a cut for listing a game on their internal app store.

@Someone else Yes, this has seemingly been against Apple’s rules for many years, but everyone assumed they were too big (or China too important) to ban. It’s not clear what’s changed.

"Did they believe that Apple would kill their app if they didn’t accept the “help”?"

The only other feasible reason I can think of would be government pressure. Cook met with the Chinese government multiple times in October and committed to increasing investment in China. Presumably, Apple got something in return.

"the big stick would have been to force WeChat to remove their app directory, I guess?"

There ain't no way. The iPhone would be dead in China.

@Plume I think that has to be the correct answer. Tencent had zero incentive to make any change, and Apple had zero leverage. This came from the top.

Also I can't help but think what this does to the state of software. We talk about "sideloading" and at least there are impractical but possible ways to write software for devices and distribute it in at least a limited capacity.

But now if all software becomes "apps" within a "super app" now there's not even that possibility anymore. Everything is going back to the mainframe model. Not coincidentally because that is the centralized control model as well.

Oh, when I wrote “similar to GEForce Now” — I don’t mean to imply streaming games. I meant the embedded alternative App Store concept only.

These mini apps are not native apps — they’re just websites it sounds like — so WeChat would likely argue that these aren’t apps at all.

Why this change now? No idea. Revenue share agreement (that they don’t mention, and might be iffy considering Google just had a problem with that)? Apple cracking down — “remove it or else”? Maybe someday we’ll find out.