Apple lowers App Store commissions for ‘mini apps’ 

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By Stephen Nellis

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Apple on Thursday said it would lower commissions for “mini apps” on iPhones and other devices.

Apple’s App Store charges commissions of up to 30% on digital purchases. Under the program announced Thursday, that rate will come down to 15% for developers of mini apps – often game titles and other apps that are offered inside a larger “host app” – if they adopt certain Apple technologies such as its method for declaring an age range of the user.

Mini apps are most common in China, where popular apps like Tencent Holdings and Alipay host scores of game titles or other services inside their primary application. But the model is also being adopted by U.S. firms, with ChatGPT creator OpenAI last month saying it will offer mini apps within its flagship chatbot app.

Under Apple’s App Store rules, developers of mini apps pay commissions for digital sales directly to Apple. How much of a cut the host app takes remains between the host app and the mini app.

Apple’s linking of the lower prices to its age declaration technology comes as the iPhone maker is in a dispute with states and tech rivals such as Meta Platforms over age verification on digital platforms.

Multiple U.S. states are pursuing laws that would require verifying the age of app users, and Meta has said it believes the best place for that verification to happen is at the level of the app marketplaces run by Alphabet’s Google and Apple.

Apple has argued that the laws would require it to invade the privacy of adult users and has proposed an alternative that would allow app developers to accept an age range that users declare, which would need to be approved by an adult in the case of younger users.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)