Apple faces an antitrust investigation in Japan
Apple, which is in a lawsuit with Epic, encountered an antitrust investigation in Japan, which was also the fault of the App Store. According to Bloomberg reports, the reason for Apple’s antitrust investigation in Japan is that many Japanese game developers have complained that the App Store with the 30% revenue share is too high, the rules when approving apps are unreliable, communication difficulties, and service support limited.
Currently, the Apple App Store has 720,000 registered developers in Japan. A research report shows that the App Store had a total of 37 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2019, of which 11 billion U.S. dollars was obtained through app sales of digital services, 24 billion U.S. dollars was obtained through app sales of physical products, and 2 billion U.S. dollars came from in-app advertising revenue.
“SF Apple Store”by signal11 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Makoto Shoji, a founder of PrimeTheory, a company that develops iOS and Android apps, said that Apple’s app review process is usually very messy and illogical, and responses to developers are templated.
Some Japanese developers interviewed by media also said that they hope that Apple can provide better developer services, such as providing adequate support during app approval, because of the current approval Time is too long.
Apple has responded to this matter to media, saying that there are currently 1,400 consultants and customer service staff in Japan. These support staff work across two time zones, which can provide developers with long service time, and also through phone calls and emails. Ways to provide services to developers, of course, Apple will further promote the localization of developer conference videos and App Store approval rules to provide developers with better services.