Apple Reduces Commissions in Mini Apps by Half

San Francisco - Apple announced on Thursday that it will be lowering the commission rates for "mini-applications" on iPhones and other devices.

The App Store takes up to 30% commission on digital sales. However, under the program announced on Thursday, this rate will be reduced to 15% for mini-app developers. To qualify for this reduction, developers need to adopt some of Apple's technologies, such as user age determination.

Mini-applications are typically prevalent in China. Popular applications such as Tencent Holdings and Alipay offer many game titles or other services within their main applications. However, this model is also being adopted by U.S. companies. For example, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, announced last month that it would offer mini-apps within its flagship chat application.

According to Apple's App Store rules, mini-app developers pay the commissions on digital sales directly to Apple. However, the fees collected by the main application is a matter between the main application and the mini-app.

The association of the commission reduction with Apple's age declaration technology coincides with a time when the iPhone maker is facing friction with technology rivals like Meta Platforms and various states over user age verification.

Many U.S. states are seeking laws that require the verification of application users' ages. Meta argues that age verification should be conducted within the app marketplaces operated by Google and Apple.

Apple, on the other hand, claims that these laws would amount to an invasion of adult users' privacy, and it offers an alternative that allows developers to accept their self-determined age range, which needs approval from an adult for younger users.