To prevent getting lost, the elevator goes directly to the safety island to report Liu Yadong A
Source: Qin Shuo's circle of friends
Author: Liu Yuanju
Source: pixabay
Shanghai Jing'an Temple, Apple's flagship store has recently opened. The Jing'an store is Apple's largest retail store in Greater China and the largest in Asia, second only to New York's Fifth Avenue flagship store.
Fruit fans flocked to the market, and Cook showed up to greet the first customers.
On this day, a short video was swiped all over the network: an aunt wearing a yellow sweater and a white vest angrily scolded the fruit fans in the queue for "worshipping foreign and flattering", "drinking the blood of martyrs and doing scum things", several young people at the scene tried to reason with the aunt, and more people continued to line up.
The sudden interlude did not disrupt the rhythm of the fruit powder purchase.
Yes, it is difficult for Auntie's extremist rebuke to affect Apple's sales in China in the slightest, but at the moment, there is another thing that is very likely to greatly reduce Apple's image in the minds of users - the discriminatory "Apple tax" by country.
Since entering 2024, from the European Union to the US market, a series of monopoly accusations against Apple have been triggered by the "Apple tax".
In order to appease the European Union, Apple, which has always been "hard-mouthed", even announced that it will implement major updates to the iOS system, Safari browser and App Store in the European Union.
This includes reducing the "Apple Tax" from 30% to 17%.
Generally speaking, whenever an Apple user pays to download an app or purchases digital goods/services through the Apple App Store, they need to pay the Apple Pay system similar to the cashier in a shopping mall, Apple withholds 30% as a toll, and then transfers the remaining 70% to the app developer. For example, if you give a tip of 100 yuan to the live broadcast lady, Apple will take 30 yuan.
How high is the "apple tax" of 30 percent? A comparison illustrates the fact that the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate is 21 percent, while the "apple tax" is a full 9 percentage points higher. So much so that Tesla's CEO Elon Musk once sprayed Apple three times a day on Twitter, calling the "Apple tax" unreasonable.
Apple made a huge profit through the "Apple Tax". According to Sensor tower statistics, the "Apple Tax" in 2013 was about 22.34 billion US dollars, equivalent to 160.8 billion yuan.
Some netizens joked that Apple doesn't have to do anything, and it can earn 500 million a day.
In the United States, it has long been determined that the "Apple tax" is a windfall profit. In January 2024, in an antitrust judgment that has come into effect, the U.S. court found that the operating profit margin of the "Apple tax" revenue after deducting a series of costs is about 75% - such a profit margin is properly classified as a profiteering industry.
In the past few years, many countries and regions around the world, including the U.S. base, have launched antitrust investigations or lawsuits against Apple. Under regulatory pressure and developer protests, Apple has been forced to open up and cut taxes over the past few years.
In the United States, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, India and other countries, Apple has adjusted the "Apple tax" accordingly, reducing it from 30% to 26%~27%, and at the same time partially opening the "sideload" market, allowing users to buy at cheaper prices through channels other than APP.
Although some regions have been forced to make concessions, relying on their own strict charging system, Apple is still implementing "differentiated treatment" around the world. As Apple's second-largest source of revenue (by country) and third-largest source of revenue in the world, Apple users in China are still locked in and restricted by its closed system, which not only applies the world's highest "Apple tax" rate of 30%, but also prevents the introduction of third-party app stores and payment processing systems.
In 2023, of the 160.8 billion yuan global "apple tax", the United States will be 94.1 billion yuan, China will be 48.2 billion yuan, the European Union will be 25.2 billion yuan, and South Korea will be 3.5 billion yuan. Based on this trend, if the "Apple tax rate" remains unchanged in the next five years, the Chinese market will have a cumulative "tax payment" of about 287.3 billion yuan, which is equivalent to donating 1 Baidu or 6 miHoYo to Apple in the United States in the Chinese market.
Lowering the "Apple tax" and striving for the same treatment as other markets in the world is crucial to the survival and development of China's innovative developers.
APP developers are the direct bearers of the "Apple Tax". A lot of good startups are usually started by small-scale young developers, and when they first run, these small and micro innovative enterprises are very sensitive to various conditions, and the break-even line is just a few points.
The excessively high "Apple tax" has shifted this break-even line, making it impossible for good projects to survive.
It is an indisputable fact that the innovation of domestic systems and applications has been affected and affected. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, from 2018 to the end of July 2023, the number of active apps in China fell from 4.49 million to 2.61 million, nearly halving in more than four years.
Consumers are the ultimate pass-on of the cost of the "Apple Tax". After being levied 30% of the "toll", in order to maintain stable profits, the most common way is to increase the cost of user recharge. "The wool comes out of the sheep", and the user has become the last wronged leader.
Some users found that the Android mobile phone was charged with 10 dollars of Shake coins, and the Apple mobile phone was 7 dollars a dollar;Whether it is at station B for the UP master "charging" or in Zhihu for the answerer"Reward",Apple will take 30% from it;Before the official account is rewarded, it is also necessary to collect "Apple tax",Later, after several functional adjustments,The reward is regarded as a transfer between users,Exempt from paying "Apple tax",The author of the official account really gets every point of reward from fans。
There may be various reasons why users like and support Apple, but these reasons must not include unequal and discriminatory treatment.
In order to reverse this injustice, the relevant authorities and the majority of developers have been working hard. As early as July 7, 2023, Zhang Jie, a well-known financial expert and lawyer, once launched a complaint about monopoly issues such as Apple tax.
But these efforts have so far failed to break the door to Apple's tax cut.
This battle for tax cuts will require more sustained and in-depth investment. Apple's practice of "no fines, no penalties, no tax cuts" has been proven time and again, and it may only be adjusted and reined in when it encounters severe penalties.
In the past ten years, the Chinese market has achieved Apple's performance and gradually established its own "brand halo" in the Chinese market, which makes users less sensitive to Apple's more expensive and discriminatory treatment than Android in a short period of time, and also makes everyone give more tolerant treatment to Apple.
Apple needs to realize that compared with Cook standing at the door of the flagship store of Jing'an Temple to greet customers warmly and take a group photo closely, what the Chinese market and users need more is to make a clear statement on the issue of reducing the "Apple tax", which is the best footnote to Cook's high-profile declaration of "I love China";