APPLE V TENCENT IN CHINA
APP WARS花词语
1. ECONOMIST：APPLE V TENCENT IN CHINA APP WARS
•IN MOST of the world, the success of Apple’s “walled garden” of proprietary software has two elements. First, its attractive rvices: urs tend to be addicted to its iTunes music shop and iBooks store. Second, the complexities involved in switching from an iPhone to another device without losing music files or having to re-download apps.
Neither factor works as well in China. There, many of Apple’s rvices have not taken off. The American giant misd the boat on music sales in the country, reckons Matthew Brennan of China Channel, a technology
consultancy. Its sales of books are blocked by the government. In addition, few would disagree that its messaging rvice is a flop and that Apple Pay, its mobile-payment offering, is irrelevant—its market share on the mainland is only1%. A “genius” employee at an Apple store in Shanghai admits sheepishly that“iCloud doesn’t work very well in China.” And switching is a doddle in China, obrves B
en Thompson of Stratechery(某个调查机构), an industry newsletter.Nearly everyone us WeChat, an app made by Tencent, one of China’s three big internet giants, for everything from social media to payments. Through WeChat it is easy to transfer photos, messages, contacts and payments history maintained on that app from one device to another. No wonder that Apple’s retention rate among iPhone urs, which tops 80% in America and Britain, is only 50% in China. That does not bode well for a key market. Apple’s revenues in greater China have nearly doubled since 2013, to $48.5bn in 2016, thanks in part to its mainland app store. App Annie, a rearch firm, reckons it is the world’s biggest Apple app store, as measured by revenue. But Apple’s results for the first quarter of the year showed total sales falling by some 14% in greater China compared with a year ago, the fifth concutive quarter of decline. Canalys, a market-rearch firm, estimates that shipments of iPhones on the mainland plunged by a quarter in the first quarter. Hostilities have now broken out with Tencent. The two had co-existed happily: since richer Chine prefer iPhones to Android phones, the devices are where WeChat made much of its money. But earlier this year, WeChat launched “mini-programs,” a form of lightweight app that operates independently of Apple’s app store and robs it of revenues.
•Apple, meanwhile, had disliked but tolerated WeChat’s practice of allowing urs to reward generat
ors of content (for example, opinion columns) with small tips. The bypass Apple’s own payments mechanism. On April 19th Apple obliged WeChat to shutdown tipping.Another front in the fighting is that the American firm’s mainland app store accepts Alipay, a payment rvice from China’s Alibaba, but not WeChat’s payment offering. Broadly, WeChat is going from being a social-media platform(akin to Facebook and WhatsApp rolled into one) to
becoming a mobile-operating system,putting it on a collision cour with Apple. “There is a war going on,”says Mr.
Brennan. Who will win such a clash of titans? Rumours are swirling among tech experts about what might happen next. Apple is trying to fortify its position. It is investing heavily in its large network of stores and rearch labs on the mainland; and it plans to include China in the first wave of countries in which its highly anticipated new iPhone will be launched later this year. But Apple is on the defensive, where as Tencent is firmly on the attack. Mr. Brennan speculates that Tencent might even launch a WeChat phone, which would make Tencent’s offering completely independent of the iPhone. Anywhere el in the world, it would be foolish to go up against the Californian giant （加州巨兔）. In China, though, the native firm may have the advantage. As Connie Chan of Andreesn Horowitz, an investment fund in Silicon Valley, puts it: “Loyalty is much, much stronger to WeChat th
an to Apple in China.”
Points：
1.“iCloud doesn’t work very well in China.”
2.Nearly everyone us WeChat
3.Apple total sales falling by some 14% in greater China compared with a year ago
4.earlier this year, WeChat launched “mini-programs,” a form of lightweight app that
operates independently of Apple’s app store and robs it of revenues.
5.On April 19th Apple obliged WeChat to shutdown tipping.
6.Wechat a social-media platform to a mobile-operating system
7.There is a war going on,
8.Californian giant（加州巨兔）------Apple
9.Loyalty is much, much stronger to WeChat than to Apple in China.
•Chine tech giant Tencent has chon the 10th anniversary of the unveiling of the iPhone to launch a rival to Apple’s App Store.WeChat , China’s most frequently ud mobile app, today started offering “miniprograms ” within the app from third-party developers. Urs can now book a shared ride with Didi, order a gift , or rent a bicycle from Mobike —and u over 100 other “apps within the app” —without leaving the WeChat platform.The new miniprogram function makes WeChat, or Weixin in Chine, the first big platform to provide an alternative to the App Store from Apple, which has tightly controlled what programs can be installed on an iOS device.While Tencent said the launch of the feature was timed to pay tribute to Apple and Steve Jobs, it is likely to be en more as a challenge by the US company to its smartphone app dominance.WeChat's miniprogram platform adds to the list of threats that Apple is facing in China. Its profits in the region fell a fifth in the year to September 2016, and last week it buckled to Chine government pressure to remove the New York Times app.Apple has responded to Tencent’s move by saying its rival is not allowed to call miniprograms “apps”, according to Pony Ma, Tencent’s chief executive.The miniprograms can be ud almost instantly and provide stripped-down functions compared to the original full apps.Rather than the 30 per cent cut that Apple takes from App Store purchas, developers have not been aske
d to give any cut to WeChat, according to Matthew Brennan of the tech consultancy ChinaChannel.In addition, miniprograms are “device -neutral”, meaning they will run in exactly the same way on Android and iOS.“Platforms for app distributions have been attempted before —Google and Baidu attempted to do this from their arch engine interface —but we've en limited attraction,” said Sandy Shen of tech rearch firm Gartner.Creating in-app platforms for app distribution is attractive to companies and third-party developers becau of the flow of ur time, payments and ur data through the parent app.WeChat's captive audience makes it a more plausible candidate to crack open in-app app distribution. The platform accounts for 35 per cent of all time spent on mobiles in China, according to QuestMobile, the tech rearch lab. More than 750m people log into WeChat daily, and half of them u it for more than an hour and a half each day.“Tencent is winning the mobile war. Miniprograms will come to have a material impact on Apple’s App Store revenues; around 15 per cent of China’s mobile market are iOS urs. Tencent is Apple’s number one source of income from the App Store globally,” said Mr Brennan.In-app purchas made through WeChat’s miniprograms are directed through Tencent’s mobile -payment system.“We don’t even have personal privacy to start with, so it’s actually safer if our personal data are in the hands of big companies like Tencent rather than small apps,” said Carol Shao, an arts industry professional and WeChat ur.Additional reporting by Sherry Fei Ju
环的成语
霍县
2. FINANCIAL TIMES: WECHAT LAUNCHES ALTERNATIVE TO APPLE APP STORE
Points：
1.Tencent is Apple’s number one source of income from the App Store globally
安徒生童话人物
过去和现在2.China’s most frequently ud mobile app, today started offering “miniprograms” within
对纪检部的认识the app from third-party developers.
怎么补肝3.The miniprograms can be ud almost instantly and provide stripped-down functions
compared to the original full apps. Rather than the 30 per cent cut that Apple takes from App Store purchas
奇迹男孩电影4.“Tencent is winning the mobile war. Miniprograms will come to have a material impact
on Apple’s App Store revenues
