Foreign App Developers Get China's Ultimatum: Leave Or Partner With A Local Publisher

China is further tightening its grip on the smartphone industry. In its latest push, the Chinese government now requires app developers to either be Chinese or partner with a local publisher, apart from providing business details and a local address.

What Happened: China's Ministry of Industry and Information (MIIT) has ordered app developers to file their business details, reported Reuters. The announcement also requires foreign app developers to either set up a company in China or partner with a local publisher.

See Also: Why Is Apple Killing 100s Of ChatGPT-Like Apps On the Chinese App Store?

In its announcement, the ministry said entities "engaged in internet information services through apps in such fields as news, publishing, education, film and television and religion should also submit relevant documents."

The oversight order comes into effect immediately, but app developers have a grace period until March 2024 to comply with the new rules. Failing to do so could result in the removal of their apps from app stores, fines, or both.

Apple To Be Impacted: The order impacts Apple Inc. AAPL, which currently operates the App Store in China. Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google, on the other hand, has had its Play Store blocked for a long time.

Until now, app developers have been able to publish apps on Apple's App Store without submitting any documentation to the Chinese government. The new rule will directly impact them and will introduce a middleman in the form of a Chinese publisher.

This is not the first time China's app and game rules have impacted Apple – earlier last week, Apple pulled hundreds of ChatGPT-like apps from the App Store to comply with Chinese regulations.

Back in 2020, too, Apple set a deadline for gaming apps to comply with Chinese regulations or face removal – by the end of the year, Apple ended up purging 46,000 apps in one day, and 39,000 of those apps were games.

Image Credits – Shutterstock

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