Apple to allow third-party payments in South Korea

Apple now prepares a plan on how third-party in-app payment systems are to be allowed on App Store in South Korea following state requirements.

Reports show that Apple will still charge commission for payments made in other services, however, this commission is to be lower than regular 30% (or 15% in some cases) for its own in-app payments.

I’d bet money that Apple’s compliance plan will follow Google’s, which was announced two months ago. They’ll create a set of APIs for apps to use if they wish to process payments on their own, and those APIs will track the amount of money so that Apple can still collect their cut as the platform owner. Google’s plan reduced the rate by 4 percent, so an app that would get an 85/15 split through the Play Store’s built-in payments system will instead pay 11 percent of the transaction price to Google. Apps in South Korea will be able to process payments on their own, but they’ll have to use the APIs that ensure Google (and now Apple) get their cut.

John Gruber

At the moment, App Store Review Guidelines are NOT updated and, therefore, there are no options to submit apps with alternate payment methods.

Reference:

• Apple will allow third-party App Store payments in Korea; will still charge commission
• Apple will allow alternative payment systems in South Korea App Store
• Apple Presents Plan to Allow External Payment Processing in Apps to South Korea Regulator, Details Currently Scant