Booting WeChat from the App Store could hit global iPhone shipments hard

It’s hard to overstate WeChat’s importance in China.
Photo: Virginia Werner/Cult of Mac

Booting WeChat out of the App Store could drive down worldwide iPhone shipments by up to 30%, claims respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

While WeChat’s total removal from the App Store seems an unlikely prospect, it could be the worst case scenario of President Trump’s recent executive order to stop U.S. transactions with WeChat and parent company Tencent.

For anyone unfamiliar with China and WeChat, it’s impossible to overstate how essential it is. Far from just a popular app, WeChat is more like an operating system. At its root, WeChat is a messaging app that’s just by more than a billion monthly users. But it goes beyond just being China’s answer to, say, WhatsApp or Messenger.

WeChat: Most important app in China’s App Store

Many people in China prefer WeChat to email as a communication method. Because services like Facebook aren’t available in China, WeChat also acts like a social network, allowing people to post images and videos. Users additionally use WeChat to pay for things, both offline and online. Finally, there are widget-style “super apps” that exist within WeChat. These let customers do everything from banking to hailing rides. Frequently, people in China will use the mini programs in WeChat rather than downloading standalone apps.

It’s tough to come up with a comparison in the U.S. because there simply isn’t one. The closest parallel would be if Facebook, Apple Pay, Uber, WhatsApp and a bunch of other top apps were all pulled from the App Store simultaneously without replacements.

The idea that WeChat could be kicked out of the App Store seems to be somewhat unlikely — but stranger things have happened. The app is mainly used in China, but it still has an international following. Lots of Chinese-Americans, for instance, use it for communicating with their families.

It would make sense for an executive order like Trump’s to only apply to apps within the U.S. But it could also compel Apple, an American company, to not allow it on any of its international App Stores. That would be a catastrophic decision for Apple’s business in China.

Via: MacRumors

Source

The post Booting WeChat from the App Store could hit global iPhone shipments hard appeared first on abangtech.

source https://abangtech.com/booting-wechat-from-the-app-store-could-hit-global-iphone-shipments-hard/