On September 6th, the WeChat iOS system received an update in the afternoon, with the latest version being 8.0.51. The updated information shows, "Fixed some known issues."

On the evening of September 2nd, there were rumors that "iPhone 16 may not support WeChat." Once the iPhone is upgraded to the iOS 18.2 system, WeChat will not be usable. This topic quickly became a hot search on Weibo.

Regarding this information, previous insiders have also denied it to reporters from the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily."

At the same time, the technical consultant for Apple China also stated at the time that whether the iOS system or Apple devices can continue to use WeChat, including whether WeChat can continue to be listed and downloaded in the Apple App Store, needs to be communicated and discussed between Apple and Tencent to determine the subsequent situation.

The technical consultant mentioned that in order to list software on the Apple Store, developers may need to pay certain fees to Apple in order to list or download the software. "When a developer lists software on the Apple App Store, after the software reaches a certain download count, for each subsequent download of the software by a user, the developer needs to pay a certain fee to Apple." He said that currently, Apple is actively communicating with Tencent to confirm whether Tencent will continue to contribute to the Apple App Store revenue through software downloads.

This rumor can be traced back to the "Apple tax" on WeChat Mini Games before. At the second-quarter financial results conference, Tencent publicly admitted for the first time that it is in discussions with Apple about the revenue sharing of WeChat Mini Games.

In the current iOS ecosystem, the in-app purchase revenue generated by small games such as WeChat and Douyin does not integrate with Apple's own payment channels when downloading game apps from the App Store. However, the rapidly growing market for small games in China cannot be ignored by Apple.

Earlier, there were reports that Apple has increased pressure on Chinese tech giants such as Tencent and ByteDance, demanding that they stop creators within apps from evading Apple's 30% commission.

It is worth noting that on the issue of the apple tax, Apple is facing a similar game with other companies or regions worldwide.

The game of interests between WeChat and Apple can no longer be ignored. According to informed sources, negotiations between WeChat and Apple regarding the apple tax are still ongoing and have not yet been 'concluded'.

But this version update may have given more time for the negotiations between the two parties.

On the other hand, China is an important consumer market for Apple, but the latest financial report shows that Apple's revenue in Greater China has declined by 6.5% to $14.73 billion compared to the previous year, making it the only region among Apple's market geographies that has experienced a decline.

Apple is about to release a series of new products, such as the iPhone 16, next Monday. At this critical point in the release of new products, Apple also needs to consider the sentiment of Chinese consumers. Now it appears that consumers may not have to worry about not being able to use WeChat on the iPhone 16.

Editor / jayden