Apple cracks down on apps in the Chinese version of the App Store as they didn’t have the license for in-app purchases.
Qimai, a data research firm has reported that Apple took out nearly 30,000 apps as a result of not having licenses from the government to offer in-app purchases. 26,000 of these are games. Reuters confirms that the June warning led to the July 1 removals, which includes games from large companies Zynga and Supercell.
Historically, the company has responded to regulations a bit slower than Google Play Store. Some games have operated in the platform despite the strict policies but have been taken down nonetheless. Before the removal, it was estimated that the China App Store had 60,000 games which needed a license to offer in-app or optional purchases. In the past decade, only 43,000 apps were granted licenses by the regulators, with only 1,600 titles given the privilege last year.
