In Apple’s latest system update, Apple quietly planted a foreshadowing at the bottom of the App Store homepage, that is, a new button called “Redeem” was added. At the time, we did not realize what this update meant. , but on January 9, the answer to this problem was finally revealed, that is, the App Store recharge card Tmall flagship store was officially launched. Apple also announced today that the App Store recharge card will be officially sold in the Chinese market on the 16th of this month.
With the introduction of recharge cards in China, Apple once again shows its sincerity to Chinese consumers
Specifically, Tmall, as the only first reservation channel for this recharge card, can accept reservations from consumers one week before the sale, that is, from January 9th to 15th. Starting from January 16, recharge cards can also be purchased at retail stores such as 7-, Lawson Convenience Store, Meiyijia Convenience Store, Bailian Group, Hongqi Convenience Store, Dandan Convenience Store, and some high-quality Apple dealers.
Users who successfully purchase the Apple App Store 88 yuan or 100 yuan recharge card during the pre-sale period will receive 20 times the Tmall points back. In this regard, Tmall said, "Since Tmall points can be used as cash in the next purchase (except for virtual goods and recharge cards/shopping cards) without an upper limit, it is basically equivalent to a 10% discount." This is a discount that has almost never been offered to Apple App Store recharge cards sold in other markets around the world.
It is worth noting that the recharge cards sold by the App Store Recharge Card Flagship Store can only be used in the China Store, require a valid account, and are valid for three years. The recharge card can be used to make purchases in the App Store or subscribe to Apple Music through multiple devices, purchase apps and games diamond recharge bigo , and make iOS in-game purchases.
You must know that Apple's performance in the smartphone market in 2016 did not meet expectations imo diamond recharge bkash , but it is not completely without good news for this company. Throughout 2016, the App Store performed very well, with revenue reaching a new high of more than $285. Chinese consumers are the key to the rapid growth of the App Store. In a data report released by App Annie in July this year, China's App Store game revenue has surpassed the United States and become the world's largest iOS game market.
In Apple's future planning, China will be a very important market. In 2016, we have also seen Apple make many adjustments for Chinese consumers. The most notable one is that on November 1 last year, in order to make it more convenient for Chinese users to recharge, the App Store began to support Alipay payment. The opening of the App Store recharge card Tmall flagship store this time, with a 10% discount, is to some extent Apple's sincerity to Chinese consumers.
Taobao black card recharging is an unbearable burden in the gray industrial chain
The spending power of Chinese users on the App Store cannot be underestimated, and it is a general trend for Apple to introduce formal and convenient recharge channels. You must know that before this, it was not easy for Chinese users to make purchases on the App Store. The various processes of bundling bank cards and verification have become unbearable. It is obvious that the newly opened App Store Tmall flagship store will become the most important channel for Apple’s recharge cards to enter the Chinese market, and the role played by Taobao Tmall cannot be ignored.
Two weeks ago, Taobao officially announced that starting from February 1, 2017, it will ban the sale of App Store recharge cards on Taobao. Taobao said, “This decision was made because too many sellers had problems with the recharge cards sold by them. A large number of buyers found that after buying App Store recharge cards, the recharge cards could not be used, or the usage time could not be checked, and these recharge cards were unable to be used. The source of the card is unknown, or even obtained through illegal use of credit cards. "After Tmall launched the recharge card flagship store, the problem of unknown supply was fundamentally solved.
Choosing to ban the sale of all Apple recharge cards across the board is a good thing for the healthy development of the entire industry. However, the announcement of Taobao's new regulations has caused many players to lose convenient consumption channels, and has also made it difficult for those who have a large inventory of recharge cards. The seller was in tears. In fact, under this announcement, we have also seen that many purchasing stores and many App Store users with foreign service accounts (usually in the US and Japan) have raised questions and objections to this adjustment.
We know that the App Store recharge card, also called a gift card, is a stored-value card launched by Apple for the App Store and the App Store. Users can use it for paid content on the App Store or on the Internet.
For Chinese users, the inherent App Store recharge methods are diverse enough. However, because the App Store requires that the country/region of the credit card used must be consistent with the country/region of the account, many users in order to download/purchase in China If you don’t have games, music or e-books, you will need to create an Apple ID in another region and then purchase a recharge card from the relevant country/region to recharge.
Since most Chinese consumers do not have overseas credit cards, recharge cards have almost become the only solution to the problem of being unable to purchase overseas paid content. Taobao's ban on sales is undoubtedly a big blow to these users. Embarrassingly, on the same day of January 9, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television stated in an interview with the Game Working Committee of the China Music and Digital Association that due to the large social risks involved in the operation of "Pokémon GO", the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television would not release the game for the time being. Approval for this type of game. This is undoubtedly adding insult to injury for players who want to play non-China games.
As for the doubts from sellers, they are actually very easy to understand. App Store recharge cards on Taobao can be divided into two categories. One part is valid physical gift cards sold by honest sellers. Most of these gift cards are Taobao merchants who stock up on merchants’ discounts and preferential times, and then use them at normal exchange rates. Selling to domestic users at reasonable prices, the credibility is relatively high. The other part is what everyone usually calls "black cards". These cards are basically not physical cards but are sold in the form of redemption codes. The price is very attractive. They are mainly obtained through illegal means such as payment loopholes or stolen credit cards. It can be said that It is a good and profitable business.
One size fits all has indeed caused a big blow to those Taobao sellers who operate formally, but it may still have more advantages than disadvantages in terms of improving the overall environment. Weifeng.com said in a report, "There are many sellers on Taobao who sell black accounts in the name of selling gift cards. This is a form of theft. When you are lucky enough to buy software with very little money, , there will definitely be a damaged person paying the bill for you. When the victim complains to Apple, your account will be blocked. Therefore, buying low-priced gift cards from unknown sources will harm not only the user who purchased it. My own account rights and interests, as well as those of Apple, developers and operators of iOS game applications, users whose accounts have been stolen, and cardholders whose credit cards have been stolen…etc., can be said to be a hundred harms without any benefit."
Behind the comprehensive ban on sales may be Alibaba’s greater ambitions
What is puzzling is that the App Store recharge cards sold in the Tmall flagship store can only be used in the Chinese Store. Obviously, the interests of the group of users who need to use overseas App Stores will be harmed, and Taobao’s big data It is impossible not to monitor the overseas application consumption needs of these users, but why can’t they make money? This may be associated with the fact that the domestic App Store has opened Alipay. Today, Alipay is actively developing overseas business. Users will most likely use Alipay for application consumption in future consumption, and Alibaba will take advantage of this trend to promote Alipay's recharge business globally.
As for Taobao’s complete ban on App Store sales, the key reason behind it is that there have been more and more complaints about game black cards recently, which has seriously affected Taobao’s brand reputation. Coupled with Apple’s goodwill in entering the Chinese market, both parties can be said to be It was an instant hit. Strictly speaking, although the comprehensive ban on the sale of gift cards by third-party merchants has played a very good role in curbing the sale of "black cards", it is still a bit too rough. After all, those sellers who normally purchase on behalf of others have also been banned in this process. Roughly "one size fits all".
However, the new policy can be said to be a blessing for developers (especially game developers), and the past haze of agency stores will be swept away. Why are recharge stores so harmful to game developers?
We know that virtual goods have relatively fixed tiered pricing in App Stores in different countries. This leads to a problem, such as completing a payment of the minimum amount for an App Store in-app purchase. In the United States, China, and South Africa, the actual monetary value paid is not absolutely equal in the three countries, and does not comply with the currencies of the real world. exchange rate relationship. Therefore, Chinese Taobao store owners often purchase gift cards from other countries/regions to recharge domestic users and earn the exchange rate difference.
"A 200-yuan item may be obtained at a cost of only 50 yuan through the exchange rate difference." There is a saying that if the user recharges 100 yuan and requests a refund, Apple will refund all 100 yuan to the user. But because the App Store takes 30% of each purchase, this part has to be borne by the game developer, which means that 100 yuan was not earned, and 30 yuan was lost. This systematic and large-scale charging business can even reduce the 70% share that developers receive from Apple to 58%, which is a tragic loss.
Starting from January 9, players of mobile games from NetEase, Tencent, Perfect World, Snail Games, Youzu Games and other companies will be able to directly jump to the Tmall App Store flagship store to recharge. When recharge channels become more convenient and secure, it will be a win-win for developers and app stores.
Going back to the significance of this cooperation to Alibaba itself, Alipay and WeChat Pay are now fiercely competing for the top spot in mobile payment. WeChat launched a mini program yesterday in the hope of connecting to offline services. However, the mini program can only choose WeChat payment. The announcement of the cooperation between Alibaba and the App Store on the same day can be seen as a counterattack.
In November last year, the App Store selected Alipay as another payment channel for the App Store in addition to Visa, China UnionPay and China UnionPay. As for why Apple did not choose Tencent's WeChat payment cooperation, it may be because it is wary of WeChat, especially after the launch of mini programs, which poses a threat to the existing application ecosystem of the App Store.
As China's largest gaming company, Tencent cannot be immune. It is also deeply affected by the exchange rate difference at Taobao recharge stores. The launch of the Tmall App Store flagship store can be said to be a very important blow to the development of WeChat Pay. According to Tencent's 2016 third quarter financial report, Tencent's mobile game revenue was approximately RMB 9.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 87%. This is an important part of Tencent's revenue.
For the entire mobile gaming industry, when game players have more convenient and secure payment methods, their losses will not only be reduced, but the increase in players' enthusiasm for paying will also lead to revenue growth. Tencent will naturally be a beneficiary, but these revenue increases may come from Alipay, a third-party channel. This will undoubtedly be an embarrassing thing for Tencent, which is vigorously developing WeChat payment.
For more exciting content, follow Titanium Media’s WeChat ID (ID:), or download Titanium Media App
发表回复