Apple's new 15% mini-app deal gets Tencent to cut Cupertino in

Apple has cut its take to 15 percent on purchases inside mini apps running within other iOS apps, and reached a parallel agreement with Tencent that brings WeChat's vast mini-program ecosystem into its revenue net.

The deal with the Chinese tech giant closes a loophole through which WeChat collected fees from transactions within the mini apps operating inside the chat application without paying Apple.

According to Bloomberg, the terms of the deal allow Apple to take a 15 percent cut of sales within WeChat mini games and apps, which generated 32.3 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) for Tencent during the quarter ended September 30.

Apple's standard commission for App Store transactions is 30 percent, with the 15 percent rate offered to participants in its small business program.

Apple announced its 15 percent commission in 2020 amid mounting developer unrest, including a lawsuit from Fortnite maker Epic Games, and years later, the courts required Apple to loosen its anti-steering restrictions. 

After Apple took a commission haircut – a move that Andy Yen, founder and CEO of Proton, characterized as an attempt to stave off regulatory intervention – Amazon and Google each began offering lower commissions to app developers.

The reduced App Store rate has been only partially successful in keeping trust busters at bay. Authorities in Australia, the European Union, Japan, India, South Korea, and the UK continue to press for concessions from the various app platforms to foster competition.

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To generalize its deal with Tencent, Apple announced a Mini Apps Partner Program by which program members – companies operating apps as platforms – can earn 85 percent of In‑App Purchase sales within qualifying mini apps, with Apple taking 15 percent. 

For publishers or developers overseeing iOS apps with a lot of users, there's now the possibility of turning that app into a platform stuffed with mini apps, though under Apple's oversight. The Mini Apps Partner Program could help the mini app model, popular in China and India, take off in the West. That would no doubt please affluencer Elon Musk, who has floated the idea of evolving X (formerly Twitter) into a super app.

The iBiz in 2024 rolled out App Store changes that allowed mini apps to integrate with Apple's In-App Purchase system under its traditional commission rates.

The Mini Apps Partner Program requires apps to support age declaration and commerce APIs, and to use web technologies, specifically HTML5 and JavaScript.

As noted by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, the programming language restriction hearkens back to the controversial terms imposed by Steve Jobs on early iPhone apps. A decade and a half ago, Apple disallowed [PDF] the use of Adobe Flash for iOS apps and the wording of its App Review Guidelines ruled out the use of pretty much anything other than Objective-C. But after complaints from developers, Apple eventually softened its stance, allowing apps made with other programming languages and third-party frameworks like Unity. ®