Apple has said it will lower commission fees that it collects from its App Store on the mainland in a huge win for Chinese developers following apparent pressure from regulators in the US tech giant's second-largest market.

Fees for in-app purchases and paid transactions ⁠will be lowered to 25 percent from 30 percent starting on Sunday, the California-headquartered company said on Thursday in a statement on its website.

In-app purchase transactions for developers belonging to Apple's small business and mini apps partner programmes will be cut to 12 percent from 15 percent.

"Mini apps" refer to smaller applications that operate within a larger application such as Tencent's WeChat.

The move is a breakthrough for Chinese app developers and operators of "super apps" including Tencent and TikTok owner ByteDance, whose platforms host many smaller apps created by third-party developers.

The cut is estimated to save Chinese developers more than six billion yuan in operating costs annually, the state-owned Economic Daily said in a report that framed the measure as a win for ⁠Chinese digital consumers.

"This adjustment will ... improve consumption choices and information transparency," it said.

"The premium for ⁠digital goods and services on the ⁠iOS side will be gradually eliminated, and the prices of membership subscriptions, game recharges, live broadcast tips, mini programmes and other scenarios are expected to decrease, which is expected to save consumers up to nearly one billion yuan ⁠per year."

"Apple Tax" remains a major target of antitrust scrutiny by regulators worldwide.

The EU introduced new legislation in 2024 that forced Apple to lower commission fees to 10 percent from 17 percent for developers.

In the United States, Apple allows users to pay in-app fees via alternative payment methods.

Apple's fee reduction also applies to international developers whose apps are available on the China App ⁠Store.

"Duolingo, the top-grossing education app in China, makes about US$50 million a year from the Chinese market and this will be saving them a decent amount of money," said Rich Bishop, founder of AppInChina, a firm that advises foreign software developers on making their apps available in China. (Reuters)


Edited by Tony Sabine