jpjhun

Don't be duped into thinking S. Korea is doing the right thing to curb anti-competitive behaviors (high app store fees) of google & apple. S.Korea is protecting its own business interest. They have a mega conglomerate called Kakao which is like whatsapp but has the functionality of wechat (payments, ride hailing, webtoons, food delivery, advertising, in-app games, ecommerce etc). A lot of these apps utilize a loophole that directs payments outside of the app store that make customers purchase 'credits'. Customers can then utilize these credits to purchase products without Kakao paying the 30% fee to google/apple. 

Not too long ago, google stated that Kakao must comply with their payment policy and cannot utilize the loopholes any longer or face being booted from the app store. Soon after, Kakao must have lobbied its parliament to pass this new law. I'm not saying that the 30% fee from google/apple is just, but creating a new law just because Kakao doesn't want to play by the rules cannot be the correct move when S.Korea is highly integrated into the global economy. The app store economy isn't unique to google/apple. In fact, many companies including salesforce, adobe, and roblox have a highly profitable app store economy. Allowing developers to officially bypass the 'tax' is ridiculous.

Kakao isn't fortnite. They can't exist out of the smartphone economy and google/apple can crush their business in a heartbeat. google & apple is not going to back down and allow precedence of allowing developers to bypass their payment system, nor is the U.S. going to support a law that diminishes their tax revenue unless the U.S. itself finds the businesses to be anti-competitive. The current delay in the parliament is probably due to the U.S. embassy giving a warning to S.Korea, and S.Korea probably wanting to negotiate the terms. Because they also know that this new law is ridiculous.