Unexplained reasons freeze the division of manufacturers into large-scale removal of domestic applications in the past year

Apple's App Store challenged by monopoly

　　It was a happy thing to change to a new mobile phone, but Xiao Han, who works in Xierqi, Beijing, was indeed a little unhappy.

The cause of the incident was that Xiao Han had just recently changed to the latest Apple phone, but the games originally installed on the old phone could not be installed.

　　"Before the epidemic, I and a few colleagues often got together for dinner after get off work. Now we are also responding to the call of epidemic prevention and control. After work, we will go back to our respective homes, and we will play games and chat online together at night." Xiao Han said. The reporter said, "But since my old iPhone broke, the new iPhone can't install the game we play at all. Now everyone is playing and chatting as usual, and I'm the only one out of the 'team'."

　　In addition to being unable to "return to the team", Xiao Han also has some concerns about his "assets" in the game: "Since the outbreak of the 'new crown', I have spent more than 1,000 in the payment system of my Apple mobile phone. It's only a dollar, and now the new mobile games can't be installed, is my investment wasted?"

　　The app is taken off the shelf and the settlement is frozen

　　Domestic manufacturers are trapped in Apple's App Store

　　We learned that the game Xiao Han and his colleagues are playing is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

The fundamental reason why Xiaohan's new mobile phone could not install the game that could be played normally before is that the App Store, the app store that comes with Apple's system, "removed" the game.

At the same time, since the App Store is the only app store that can be used by Apple's mobile phone system, Xiao Han may not be able to return to his game team until the game is resumed.

　　With Xiao Han's question about when to install the game on the new mobile phone, the reporter contacted Jinshan Games, the operator of the game.

Manager Gao, a person in charge of Kingsoft Games, told reporters that the game mentioned by user Xiao Han was indeed "removed" from the Apple App Store, which caused a lot of inconvenience to users who needed to replace their new Apple phones; Actively communicate with the Apple App Store, but the effect is very limited. Kingsoft Games also hopes that the Apple App Store can give a clear reply and solution.

　　According to the person in charge surnamed Gao, the question of when to resume "on the shelf" is actually completely stuck in the Apple App Store, "As early as the beginning of April 2021, we received an email from the Apple App Store about the suspension of settlement until June 2021. In the middle of the game, the game was 'removed', and we have been trying to communicate with Apple officials, but Apple officials have never given us specific reasons for terminating the settlement and removing the game from the shelves."

　　It is reported that from the termination of settlement in April 2021 to the final "off the shelf" in June 2021, Kingsoft has communicated with the Apple App Store for nearly 30 times, including emails and developer accounts. Most of them are "will contact again with further information", and there is no other substantive progress.

　　It has to be emphasized that according to the "N+3" account period rules for Apple's settlement, the settlement of this game in the Apple App Store has actually stopped from the end of January 2021.

This means that in the past year or so, this game has not actually received a penny in the Apple App Store, but at the same time it has to pay a high cost to maintain the normal promotion and promotion of the game on the Apple system. Operation - This is a huge pressure for domestic game developers.

　　What worries the Kingsoft Games team even more is that, during the 30-day appeal period stipulated by Apple, judging from the communication with Apple's App Store, the reason for the game being taken off the shelf and the settlement freeze is still unclear. When it is "on the shelf" and when the settlement freeze is lifted are all suspense.

This situation is obviously not good news for players like Xiao Han.

　　The rights and interests of local developers must be protected

　　Apple Allegedly Abusing Market Dominance for Monopoly

　　What happened to the above-mentioned games and game user Xiao Han also reminded the issue of the protection of the rights and interests of local developers on the Apple App Store.

The recent stories of more and more local apps in China being "taken off the shelf" in Apple's App Store also involve whether Apple is suspected of abusing its dominant market position.

　　Data from the “Removed App Monitoring” from “Qimai Data” shows that in the last quarter of 2021, more than 16,000 local Chinese developer games were removed from the Apple App Store, and the number of game applications removed each month exceeded 16,000. 5,000, a substantial increase from the third quarter.

Among the numerous off-the-shelf game apps, in addition to other reasons such as game version numbers, active take-off, etc., game developers or promoters such as Kingsoft Games that have been “taken off” and are actively striving for “on-shelf”, Not uncommon.

　　The reporter learned that, in addition to this game, another game promoted and operated by Kingsoft Games has actually been "removed" from the Apple App Store.

A person in charge of the game team revealed that as early as the end of March 2021, the game was removed from the Apple App Store.

　　"For this reason, our team can only start a self-inspection. After submitting the game package for self-inspection and self-correction many times, the feedback from the Apple App Store has always been that the review failed, but we still did not tell us the specific reason." The person in charge Said, "But inexplicably, until mid-June, our game suddenly went live again, and we also didn't know the details of the reason behind the 'on the shelf'."

　　Li Jie (pseudonym) from Fujian also has many questions about the handling of Apple's App Store "off the shelf".

In the second half of 2021, the cartoon casual game developed by Li Jie's team is very popular on the Apple App Store, with more than 2,000 downloads per day.

But the sudden "off the shelf" still troubled Li Jie, and eventually affected the operation of this game.

　　"Actually, I didn't feel very nervous when I received the 'off the shelf' notice at first, because our game type has relatively few problems, so it should be enough to find the problem and modify it." Li Jie said, "But in the next step with the Apple App In the communication with the Store, we found that Apple's official reply was very subtle, and there was a reply every time, but it was like a robot, and it was the same, which did not help us in rectifying the problem."

　　What makes Li Jie even more unacceptable is that, as a developer of Apple's App Store in the Chinese market, Li Jie's development team must use English in official communication with Apple, which is very difficult for a small developer team of more than a dozen people. difficulty.

"We can all understand general English, but on key issues, such as when studying Apple's 'developer agreement', there are multiple versions including English and Chinese. Although the official website has a Chinese version, it does not conform to Chinese Habits, obscure words, such a design is very unfriendly to us Chinese developers, we can't understand the Chinese version well, so if you read the original English version, you can't do it without a professional English translation."

　　In response to this, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is committed to safeguarding Internet freedom, has criticized some of Apple's developer agreements, pointing out that its terms unilaterally favor Apple's interests and are suspected of hindering competition and innovation.

In addition, the Apple App Store has also been criticized by many Chinese developers on the issue of "commission".

　　A relatively high-ranking game developer in China told reporters that in general, Apple's App Store takes 30% of the revenue of domestic game manufacturers, but in fact the final cost of the development team is often much higher than this figure. .

"Domestic developers must follow Apple's official data when negotiating settlement with Apple's App Store, which is actually very unscientific." The above-mentioned manufacturer said, "In the process of game operation, some promotions, discounts and other preferential activities are often done, so When it comes to settlement, you will often find that the settlement figures calculated by yourself do not match the figures on Apple’s side, and sometimes even have to be deducted by several percentage points from the Apple App Store. From the perspective of the entire domestic game industry, this must be a A very large number."

　　Domestic anti-monopoly gains substantial progress

　　The industry calls on Chinese developers to form a group to defend their rights

　　Regarding the above-mentioned problems encountered by local Chinese developers, Lin Wei, director of Beijing Daxiao Law Firm, told this publication that some practices in the Apple App Store's removal of Chinese developers' applications and the settlement process have been suspected of abusing market dominance. monopolistic behavior.

　　When it comes to the topic of "monopoly", we often talk about "anti-monopoly".

Generally speaking, anti-monopoly refers to an intervention method adopted by the relevant departments of the national government when a company's marketing shows a monopoly or a trend of monopoly. The essence of anti-monopoly is to promote the healthy operation of the market mechanism and ensure a fair market environment. .

　　As the initiator, Lin Wei once represented dozens of domestic developer companies in 2017, reporting to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission that the Apple App Store was suspected of monopoly.

In response to the above-mentioned behavior of Apple's App Store, lawyer Lin Wei called on local Chinese developers to make good use of the powerful domestic anti-monopoly weapons, and protect their rights and interests through legal reporting and rights protection.

　　Lin Wei believes that in the face of the developer agreement, Apple's App Store has the power of life and death, while being vague, completely ignoring the developers' concerns about the content of the clear rules, removing products without legitimate reasons, and being inconsistent at the official language and operational levels. Directly facing domestic developers and not giving reasonable explanations to our developers, this is often seen during the review process of Apple's App Store.

"So, these practices of Apple's App Store have actually been suspected of implementing monopolistic behavior that abuses its dominant market position."

　　In Lin Wei's view, the services of Apple's App store in China are typical commercial Internet information services. According to the State Council's "Administrative Measures for Internet Information Services", commercial Internet information services should be obtained through its operating entities in China. "Value-added Telecommunications Business Operation License", but since Apple provided application sales platform services to Chinese developers and Internet users in 2008, it has never set up any entity to operate an App store in China, nor has it obtained the "Value-added Telecom Business License" in accordance with the law. Business Operation License.

　　"The good news is that in 2021, the State Anti-Monopoly Bureau will report 118 'anti-monopoly' administrative penalty cases, which is almost the sum of the 6 years' notices from 2015 to 2020. The topic of 'anti-monopoly' has received unprecedented attention. It is a very positive signal, and it means that China is becoming more and more determined on the road of anti-monopoly." Lin Wei told reporters, "In fact, the State Anti-Monopoly Bureau has the power and ability to collect and retrieve such suspected abuses. The monopolistic behavior of market dominance is not a central 'judging' role, but a 'regulatory' role."

　　Although Apple's App store has not yet encountered a formal anti-monopoly investigation in China, at the international level, Apple can be said to be riddled with lawsuits.

As early as 2019, the US Supreme Court judges voted, and finally ruled with a 5:4 result that Apple lost an antitrust case concerning its App Store.

On April 30 last year, the European Union officially launched an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. This is the first time the EU has brought an antitrust lawsuit against Apple.

Almost at the same time, Japan also officially launched an antitrust investigation into Apple.

In the future, Apple's IOS system and the so-called closed-loop ecosystem of Apple's App store may also undergo more tests.

In-depth reporting team of this journal