Recently, we had reported on the Trump administration banning the WeChat app, a popular Chinese social media platform. This new US sanction would force Apple to remove the app from its App Store, which was expected to cause it to lose a significant part of its sales in China. Now, a new report reveals that Apple plans to push back on the ban while a survey found that 95 percent of Chinese users would rather give up iPhone than lose WeChat.
At the moment, it is unknown if the ban on the WeChat app is strictly restricted to just the US App Store or the global one. Tencent, the parent company of WeChat, stated that it believed that the ban is only applicable in the US but is seeking clarity. The cause for this unsure atmosphere around the new order is due to its vague working, which states banning any transaction related to WeChat.
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According to a Bloomberg survey, 95 percent of the 1.2 million Chinese Apple users said that they would rather switch to an Android device than use an iPhone without WeChat. A HongKong user stated that banning WeChat would make an iPhone into “electronic trash.” Another stated that his “family in China are all used to WeChat and all our communication is on the platform.”
A Wall Street Journal report also revealed that over a dozen companies including Apple, Ford, Walmart, and Disney are pushing back against the ban. In a call to the White House, the known brands detailed the adverse consequences that a ban on WeChat would have on their businesses. With WeChat being used to payments, e-commerce and marketing as well, Tencent stated that any device without it would be “extremely hard to sell” in China.
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