Apple settles App Store dispute after outcry from digital doctor apps

Developers in China say online medical consultations are different from other in-app purchases

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Apps like Chunyu Yisheng and Dingxiang Yisheng provide online consultation from doctors around the country. (Picture: Chunyu Yisheng/Dingxiang Yisheng)

Published: 6:37pm, 18 Jul 2019Updated: 9:09am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Update: Headline and story updated to reflect Apple’s response.

There’s a cost to selling things in iOS apps. For more than a decade now, Apple has been charging developers a 30% commission on every in-app purchase, whether it’s subscriptions or virtual game currencies. The practice has drawn its share of detractors, the latest being online healthcare platforms in China.

This week, several apps that offer online medical consultation from doctors protested against the so-called “Apple tax,” according to China Youth Daily, the Communist Youth League’s official paper. These apps usually provide consultation over the phone or internet for a fee. Users can make a call through the app or send photos with written descriptions of symptoms.

In the case of iOS apps, users are required to make in-app purchases through Apple’s own payment system. Popular Chinese online payment services such as WeChat Pay and Alipay are almost universally banned unless they're linked to your Apple account. That ensures Apple can take a 30% cut from all in-app transactions.

(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, whose financial arm Ant Financial operates Alipay.)

Developers of medical apps in China, like Chunyu Yisheng and Dingxiang Yisheng, said Apple requested a 30% revenue cut from them even though their services are fundamentally different from the cookie-cutter products typically offered by other apps. Each medical consultation, they argued, is unique and therefore shouldn’t be lumped into the same category as game items or online courses.