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So what does #Tencent get out of #Epic vs. Apple? Epic's goal is to reduce the fees they're paying to #Apple, either from introducing competition through alternative app stores / sideloading, or just getting Apple to lower rates. ( #freefortnite) 1/6
I think Tencent's goal is exactly the same, or at the very least it's not some CCP proxy plot. The CCP is fine with Apple's services; they're happy to act a censor ( https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/10/tim-cook-apple-hong-kong-mapping-app-removal), store Chinese #iCloud data locally ( https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/18/17587304/apple-icloud-china-user-data-state-run-telecom-privacy-security), etc. 2/6
The walled garden model is ideal for totalitarians w/ market share. However, it's not great if you make money selling #microtransactions in games. We don't know what percentage of Epic's sales are made on iPhones, but they pale in comparison to Tencent. 3/6
Last year, Tencent made 35.99 billion yuan ($5.18 billion) on mobile games ( https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/12/tencent-earnings-q2-2020.html). iOS market share in China is almost 20% ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/262176/market-share-held-by-mobile-operating-systems-in-china/). Napkin math, let's call it $1.04 billion in purchases on iOS. 4/6
With the App Store's 30% fee, they're paying Apple ~$312 million per year (napkin math again). That's a lot of money on the table. If Apple is forced to allow sideloading and/or lower fees, Tencent will come out way ahead. 5/6
I don't think there's anything more suspicious than the usual attempts by giant corporations to rewrite laws (or their interpretations) to save money. 6/end. Hope the thread worked, first time doing this.
I'm a dumbass, just realized the mobile game revenue is after Apple's cut. Started making an Excel sheet to figure this out but my estimates are too inaccurate to be useful. TL;DR opening Apple will probably save Tencent more than I guessed earlier. 7/6
