Apple App Store allow users to use third-party payment provider in South Korea

South Korea passed a bill last year prohibiting companies such as Google and Apple from collecting revenue from apps. It also stipulates that developers must be allowed to make in-app transactions through other payment systems. Apple subsequently agreed to cooperate with this new regulation, and earlier formally adjusted the App Store payment provider in South Korea, which will allow users to pay for in-app transactions through other payment methods.

However, at present, Apple only opens the services of third-party payment providers in South Korea, including KCP, Inicis, Toss, and NICE. In the future, if more third-party payment companies want to join, they must apply to Apple separately.

On the other hand, Apple still maintains a denial of this adjustment, that is, when using third-party payment services to conduct transactions, Apple will still charge 26% of the profit for each transaction, which is used as platform maintenance, VAT, and other related expenses. At the same time, when transacting through a third-party payment service, it cannot be used for a family sharing subscription, or when someone else is required to pay for it.

According to Apple’s previous instructions, the purpose of collecting profit for a single transaction in the app is mainly for the maintenance of the App Store platform, but also to ensure the security of each transaction, and developers do not need to spend extra effort to deal with trivial financial issues. If developers choose to conduct in-app transactions through third-party payment services, they will naturally not be able to enjoy the convenience brought by Apple’s transaction mechanism, and they still need to pay the necessary fees through profit sharing.

Most independent developers and small and medium-sized developers, they may still choose to let Apple make a little more money, so as to reduce unnecessary troubles and focus more on content development and design. However, for large-scale developers, game developers, etc., which will have larger-scale revenue, choosing to reduce part of the profit-sharing fee through third-party payment services can obviously retain more profits, so this approach may be more favorable.