Apple’s move to require developers to apply for a license from the Chinese government before making apps available on the country’s app store closes one loophole in Beijing’s censorship, analysts and users say. However, it also makes the lives of developers even more difficult.
Users like Alex, a 28-year-old from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, have been buying iPhones for years to regularly browse Instagram and YouTube. These apps are blocked by China’s Great Firewall, but are available for download from the Chinese iOS store. By using a virtual private network (VPN), Alex was able to access the content of these apps.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a VPN in China, but Alex, who declined to reveal his full name for fear of prosecution, says the effort is a great way to experience a more diverse range of opinions and information than what you can get locally. He said it was worth it. App.
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Alex’s modest hobbies are not unusual. Banned foreign apps typically rack up millions of downloads on mainland China’s iOS store, many of them by young people looking to connect with foreign countries and circumvent web censorship.
Late last year, during mass protests in China over pandemic restrictions, X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram briefly became two of the top trending apps in the country. Google Chrome is in the lead so far in 2023, with around 7 million downloads already, while Instagram and X have both reached 5 million downloads, according to data from app market intelligence provider Sensor Tower.
Apple Store on Nanjing Road shopping street in Shanghai, China. Photo: Bloomberg alt=Apple Store on Nanjing Road shopping street in Shanghai, China. Photo: Bloomberg>
However, iPhone users in China may soon lose this virtual window. After the country tightened app regulations last year, Apple recently targeted app developers to mainland users as part of the US giant’s latest move to comply with censorship laws in one of its most lucrative markets. The company began requiring companies to show proof of license from local internet regulators.
Experts predict that Apple will soon start retroactively removing likely unlicensed apps, including Instagram, Google, and X. Some of these platforms can also be accessed through his web browser using his VPN, but Alex said the policy changes would complicate the use of foreign apps. -Based platform.
Meanwhile, many other services, such as WhatsApp, which is steadily gaining popularity in China, can only be accessed through apps.
The main change in Apple’s policy is that apps will now need to obtain an Internet Information Provider (ICP) license from Chinese regulators, effectively making it illegal to use the internet, according to Chinese app developers familiar with the matter. All apps will be required to use mainland domains and be hosted by local entities. process.
“It’s already having a huge impact on the sector,” said Samuel Jesse, founder and digital director of Digital Creative Asia, a Shanghai-based digital products and user experience agency.
Jesse said the rule would not only affect censored foreign apps, but also apps that target Chinese users but do not operate domestically, making it most difficult for small independent developers. He added that there is a high possibility of facing
He said Digital Creative Asia is offering foreign customers who want to remain in Apple’s app store a way to host their apps in China or create a China-specific version of the app separate from the global version. He is giving advice on.
The second option doesn’t always work.
Professional networking platform LinkedIn created a China-compliant version of its app with strict content filters in 2021, but abandoned that effort earlier this year.
LinkedIn headquarters in Mountain View, California. Photo: AP Photo alt=LinkedIn headquarters in Mountain View, California. Photo: AP Photo>
Other app developers are exploring partnerships with local publishers who offer app hosting services for a fee in China.
One such publisher, AppInChina, has been working since Apple updated its developer guidelines to prevent unlicensed apps from initiating updates, CEO Rich Bishop said. The number of inquiries about the company as an agency is increasing rapidly.
Small local developers have also expressed frustration with the app filing requirements, warning that it increases costs and impedes the typical business model of releasing apps quickly and innovating over time through rapid updates. are doing.
Apart from the ICP license, apps will likely have to meet a number of censorship policies and standards, including various data transfer laws that will be tightened in 2021.
Additional, more restrictive licenses also exist in China for apps containing material related to games, books, magazines, religion, and news.
The South China Morning Post app, owned by Hangzhou-based tech conglomerate Alibaba Group Holding, is currently available on China’s iOS store, but its content is blocked by the country’s firewall.
Apple has for years resisted following the more restrictive app development policies of its domestic competitors, including pursuing special requests from Chinese regulators to remove certain controversial apps.
However, in August last year, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) updated its app provider policy, requiring app distribution platforms to submit certain information to the authorities for registration, and app stores to actively promote their products. The law stipulates that the following types of apps will be prohibited from being uploaded: “Contains illegal or malicious information.”
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Apple has been meeting with Chinese officials over the policy. Still, CAC released a list of registered app stores in late September, and it’s notable that California companies were not among them. Officials said there will be penalties for failure to register between September and March.
Shortly after, Apple began requiring ICP licenses for app developers.
Another side effect of the CAC requirement is that it may reduce the number of apps available in China. This is seen by some as an indicator of the health of the country’s digital economy.
China’s Apple App Store currently offers the most apps of all platforms in China, with around 21% of the 5,000 most downloaded apps being foreign-developed, according to Sensor Tower data. published by.
This data does not include users who downloaded your app from iOS stores set in other regions or from third-party platforms.
Kareem Abdelkader, an Egyptian working in Shanghai, said he was able to access and update banned apps like Instagram from China by keeping his Apple ID’s regional settings in Egypt.
Generally, users who want to change their App Store regional settings must provide a payment method that is accepted in the region they’re switching to, which can complicate the process.
But Tanya, a 28-year-old social media manager in Shanghai who only gave her first name to the Post, was able to buy a U.S. Apple ID online and use it to download a VPN and access Instagram, YouTube, and more. He said he was able to access WhatsApp. . However, she added that having to constantly switch between accounts is annoying.
“There will always be loopholes that the public can understand.” [in China]Tech-savvy users in particular will use these apps,” said Abraham Youssef, Senior Insights Analyst at Sensor Tower.
“Still, we expect this usage to decline as policy tightening creates greater barriers to entry and users are less likely to find the app in the first place,” he added.
– Additional reporting by Yuke Xie and Meredith Chen
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative news organization on China and Asia for more than a century. For more stories from SCMP, explore the SCMP app or visit SCMP on Facebook. twitter page. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.