The American group said that commissions on in-app purchases and paid transactions will drop from 30% to 25% as from Sunday. For developers enrolled in programs for small businesses and mini-app partners, the commission will be reduced from 15% to 12%. These mini-apps are lightweight applications running within a main app, such as within Tencent's WeChat ecosystem. The measure is expected to benefit Chinese developers as well as major digital platforms such as Tencent and ByteDance.

According to the state-run Economic Daily, this reduction could enable Chinese developers to save more than 6 billion yuan, or approximately $873m per year. The newspaper estimates that the measure will improve transparency and competition in digital services, while gradually reducing the premium applied to goods and services sold on iOS. Prices for subscriptions, game top-ups, tips during live broadcasts, and other digital services could thus decrease, generating nearly one billion yuan in annual savings for consumers.

The 30% commission, often dubbed the "Apple tax," is subject to antitrust scrutiny in several regions worldwide. The European Union has already imposed a reduction in commissions to between 10% and 17% for developers, while in the United States, Apple now allows alternative payment systems for in-app purchases. In China, authorities could go further by requiring that App Store revenues be collected directly within the country and by strengthening supervision of foreign applications published on the platform.