TikTok might be going around the App Store to avoid paying fees. New information shows that the social video app run by ByteDance is giving some of its users a link to a website where they can buy the coins that are used to tip digital creators. Usually, these coins are bought through an in-app payment, which means Apple gets 30% of the price.
There’s a chance that most people can’t see the feature. This could be on purpose, or it could be that only testers or high-spenders can see it. In any case, people who can see the new choice are shown a screen that tells them to “recharge” (buy more coins) on tiktok.com. TechCrunch reader David Tesler found these pictures in the iOS app, but it’s not clear how many TikTok users are seeing them or when or how they’re being shown.
Tesler says that an account that had bought a lot of coins before was shown the chance to buy them on the web.
A message like “Try recharging on tiktok.com to avoid in-app service fees” and a “Try now” link may appear on the screen for users in some cases. Sometimes, they might see a pop-up that says “Try recharging on tiktok.com” and gives them another message about how much money they might save. This one says, “You can save the service fee and get access to popular payment methods.” It then has a big red “Try now” button or a “Don’t show again” button that is less noticeable.
If users click on the link, they will be taken to tiktok.com/coin, where they can buy coins. They can pay in a number of ways from this web view, such as with Apple Pay, debit or credit cards, or cash. Users are reminded on the website that if they buy something straight from TikTok, they will save about 25% “with a lower third-party service fee.”
On the web, people can buy packs of coins with anywhere from 70 to 17,500 coins in them, or they can put a custom (higher) amount. Inside the app, however, coin packs range from 20 coins to 16,500 coins, and there is no way to choose a different amount.
That could mean that TikTok is only showing the web links to people who buy a lot of coins at once.
Apple did start letting makers of some apps add links to their websites from within the app in 2022, but it was only for a few specific uses. Apps that offer these lines for “account management” are only what Apple calls “reader” apps, which are apps whose main purpose is to give you access to paid digital material (like Netflix, not Facebook). It’s also not possible for apps that use the External Link Entitlement to sell in-app items through the App Store. Either or is the answer.
Since TikTok also lets most of its users buy things through in-app payments, it looks like it wouldn’t be following the rules for External Link Entitlement even if it had been given an exception, which would be strange.
When asked for comments, TikTok and Apple have not yet replied. TikTok’s help pages for coins say that you can buy them and add more to your account through the App Store and Google Play on your phone.
Tesler said that Apple removed the Fortnite game from the game Store when it added a way for users to avoid Apple’s in-app purchases. Given the current political climate around the Beijing-based app, it’s not clear what, if any, steps Apple will take against TikTok right now.
Also Read: Tiktok Takes a Function From the Lite App in the Eu Because of Worries About Addiction
It’s not clear what will happen to TikTok in the U.S. now that President Biden has signed a bill into law to ban the app. But the business said it would fight the ban in court, just like it did when Trump was president. It was Biden’s plan to wait to try to ban the app until a new bill that had support from both parties passed both the House and Senate.
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