I don’t know if friends who use iPhone have such troubles. Many application services cannot be purchased using third-party payment.

Not long ago, Apple officially announced that it would relax payment restrictions, which means that users can use Alipay and WeChat payment within the app. What puzzles Xiao Hei is, what is the reason for Apple, which regards this as its bottom line, to suddenly give in?

Why would Apple relax payment restrictions?

I believe everyone who has used iPhone knows that Apple has previously stipulated that virtual products or services within the scope of application must be purchased and paid using Apple IAP (IAP is an APP launched by Apple The method of purchasing virtual goods within the app and supporting iOS 6) does not allow the use of other payment methods, nor is it allowed to guide users to purchase through external channels in any other way. It is not difficult to see that this is a naked monopoly by Apple.

Therefore, many friends can only pay with IAP when paying. However, recently Apple suddenly announced that it would give up payment restrictions. What happened to make Apple make such a decision?

Perhaps the anti-monopoly call is getting louder and louder. From the popular "Fortnite" game developer Epic to Apple's monopoly The revolt began and after Epic established its own in-game payment system, the game was removed from the shelves by Apple and Google.

Subsequently, a landmark lawsuit began. Later, more than a dozen app developers including Epic Games, Spotify, and dating software group Match established the "App Fairness Alliance" last year, marking the official launch of the first shot of the "Apple tax."

In addition, South Korea passed the "Electric Communications Business Law", which is called the "Anti-Google Law." It mainly passed legislation to prohibit Apple and Google from collecting in-app commissions from software developers, and also restricted Apple's 30% commission. This bill also made South Korea the first country to impose restrictions on Apple and Google's payment policies and to resist.

Faced with increasing antitrust regulatory pressure, Apple may also be a good choice to relax payment restrictions.

In fact, Apple’s concessions are also part of the settlement with the Japan Fair Trade Commission. After Apple makes this decision, the Japan Fair Trade Commission will no longer investigate the Apple APP Store.

In addition to JD.com, what other applications can use third-party payment?

According to relevant news, JD members and Weibo members can now use third-party payment. After testing, Xiaohei found that only JD members can use third-party payment, while Weibo members Not yet.

In order to verify whether there are other software that can use third-party payment, Xiaohei specially tested a number of commonly used software and found that most applications on the iPhone do not support it yet. Third party payment.

The picture on the left shows payment by Taobao 888 VIP members, and the picture on the right shows payment by members of JD.com

The picture on the left is an Apple mobile phone, and the picture on the right It's an Android phone

Later, Xiaohei tried to purchase several application memberships such as NetEase Cloud Music and iQiyi with his iPhone, but found that they did not support third-party payment for the time being.

However, Xiaohei also made a new discovery. In addition to JD.com members, Xiaohongshu’s Xiaohong card members and Taobao 88VIP members can use third-party payment, and the fees paid by Apple and Android when purchasing memberships are the same. This wave of operations looks like It does smell delicious.

Why can’t most iPhone apps use third-party payment? Although Apple has now opened this port, it may take some time for relevant suppliers to connect to this port. This may be the reason why many software cannot use third-party payment for the time being.

What will be the impact of this concession?

Secondly, for Apple users, hearing such news is of course welcomed with both hands. For a long time, because of Apple's commission, the price paid by users using the App Store to buy the same thing is ten yuan more than Android. And this time the payment restrictions are relaxed, it can really save Apple users several cups of milk tea when paying. It is not a bad thing no matter how you look at it!

Picture source: mobile phone screenshot, pixabay