Chinese partners of iPhone 5

Chinese partners of iPhone 5 The just-released iPhone 5 can be said to be the “most Chinese”…

The just-released iPhone 5 can be said to be the “most Chinese” Apple product. This is reflected in the fact that Apple has chosen more local service providers specifically for Chinese users, and a series of Chinese company names have appeared among its partners.

The global version of iPhone 5 is bound to Facebook and Twitter, while the Chinese version chooses to be bound to Sina Weibo and Youku Tudou; for iOS 6’s pre-installed map service, Apple’s partner in Europe and the United States is the old Dutch digital map company TomTom, and its Chinese partner is AutoNavi. The default search engine has been changed from Google to Baidu; Siri will also support Mandarin and Cantonese.

For the vast majority of Chinese iPhone users, the arrangement of the iOS 6 Chinese version is indeed more convenient for existing users: Youku Tudou is the most commonly used video sharing website among domestic netizens. Analysys International released the food industry revenue market share in the fourth quarter of last year. Before the merger, Youku and Tudou accounted for 21.8% and 13.7% respectively, ranking the top two in the market.

Sina Weibo is the most commonly used social networking site among domestic netizens besides QQ Space. Lu Yi, deputy general manager of Sina Weibo Business Department, released data in May this year that Sina Weibo updates 100 million Weibo posts every day; the proportion of active users on mobile terminals is approximately 60%, of which iPhone accounts for 28.7%. In other words, among the active users of Sina Weibo, iPhone users account for 17.2%, and approximately 17 million Weibo messages are posted every day. The number of active Chinese Twitter users probably does not exceed 100,000; the number of Chinese active Facebook users is even less.

Chinese partners may be grateful for the existence of the network firewall, which prevents mainland Chinese users from sending and receiving information through Facebook and Twitter bound to iOS6. After Apple's default search engine is changed from Google to Baidu search, the phenomenon of "connections being reset" will no longer be encountered frequently.

The reason why AutoNavi was selected as Apple’s new map service provider in mainland China is because AutoNavi is the most popular among domestic smartphone users. According to the 2012 China Mobile Map Client Market Data Monitoring Report released by Analysys International, the top four players in China's map service market in the first quarter of 2012 were Amap, Google Maps, Baidu Maps and Nokia Maps. By the second quarter of this year, Google Maps' market share had dropped significantly, while Nokia Maps' market ranking fell to seventh place.

After cooperating with Apple, Amap may continue to widen the gap with other competitors. Just like Apple successfully helped China Unicom compete with China Mobile in the 3G field. According to the number of 3G users announced by the three major operators in 2011, the 3G market shares of China Unicom (Shanghai Stock Exchange Code: 600050), China Mobile (Hong Kong Stock Exchange Code: 00941) and China Telecom were 31%, 40% and 29% respectively. In the 2G era, China Mobile held more than 80% of the market share.

Amap’s selection also benefited from the Chinese government’s access restrictions on the map business. According to relevant regulations issued by the National Bureau of Surveying, Mapping and Geographic Information, etc.: Since maps involve national security, if foreign-funded enterprises want to conduct map services in China, they need to set up their data servers in mainland China and accept the supervision of the National Bureau of Surveying, Mapping and Geographic Information; they need to obtain an Internet service operation qualification license; they also need to cooperate with local qualified map data suppliers in China. Such stringent regulations have basically eliminated the possibility for foreign digital map companies to conduct business on a large scale in China. Google Maps applied for it in November 2011, but according to public reports, it still failed to obtain the relevant qualifications as of July 2012.

But some people are happy and some are disappointed. The author believes that when selecting Chinese partners, Apple has also adhered to its "global standards": that is, it refuses to cooperate with companies that have strong monopoly advantages and may conflict with its core business.

Financial blog PingEast once quoted reliable sources as saying that a few months before the release of iOS 6, staff at Tencent’s Palo Alto office in California had actively contacted Apple in the hope of deeply integrating Tencent’s services in iOS 6, but the results disappointed Tencent. This information has not been confirmed by Tencent.

The failure of business negotiations may be due to the different understanding of the prospects of cooperation between the two parties. If you look at the data alone, Tencent’s QQ Zone has a wider user base than Sina Weibo.

According to the "Domestic Social Media Sharing Data Ranking Report for the First Half of 2012" released by JiaThis, the largest provider of social sharing tools in China, QQ Zone is the most shared by domestic users, followed by Sina Weibo, accounting for 13.26% and 9.79% of the sharing percentage respectively; while the sharing percentage of Tencent's other social platform Tencent Weibo is 8.37%, which is only 1.5 percentage points lower than Sina Weibo. The percentage of clickbacks in QQ Space (the percentage of clickbacks refers to the number of page link views shared in a certain social media as a percentage of the total number of page link views shared in all social media) is as high as 47.14%, while that of Sina Weibo is only 18.44%. The effect of link sharing in QQ Space is 2.5 times that of Sina Weibo.

Also rejected by Apple is iFlytek (Shenzhen Stock Exchange Code: 002030), a domestic software company specializing in intelligent voice and language technology research. According to Jiang Tao, vice president of iFlytek, they submitted iFlytek to the iOS App Store on June 21. Under normal circumstances, the application can be completed in 7-10 days. However, the review of Yudian did not start until July 3, and so far this Chinese voice assistant product has failed to pass Apple’s review.

Jiang Tao once told the author in a private meeting that the reason given by Apple for rejection was that there was no product introduction video. Many people in the industry think this is a very interesting reason. This may just be Apple's official excuse. The root cause may be that it is afraid of the possible impact that iFlytek Voice Point may have on Siri. Siri is the only product in iOS that is still in beta. Although the intelligence and practicality of iFlytek Voice Point are not very good, Apple is obviously not willing to see local voice companies snatch users from its imperfect beta products.

iFlytek, which was rejected by Apple, chose to accept investment from China Mobile last month, accounting for 15% of the shares; its investors were also rejected by Apple, and it chose China Unicom, another telecom operator in mainland China. Tencent employees in California may still be trying hard to contact Apple.

Apple has control over these partners, whether they say yes or no. But for other people who are more "reliant" on Apple, Apple has nothing to do. Manufacturers in Shenzhen are shipping their pre-made iPhone 5 protective cases to Hong Kong and the United States; purchasing agents on Taobao are mobilizing all available resources to make a fortune by reselling iPhone 5 before it is launched in China; there are also scalpers at the entrance of Apple stores ready to promote iPhones.

Shi Beichen is a researcher on the value of unlisted technology companies and a technology columnist.