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Comment by jasongill | Hacker News Reader

This article explains this new program for those (like me) who had no idea what a "mini app" was and why it matters: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/11/13/apple-announces-mini-ap...

tldr: it will let Apple charge a commission (although at 15%, it's half the normal 30% rate for the app store) on popular web app games embedded in to WeChat for the Chinese market

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Mini apps are way more than web games. For a lot of people in China, WeChat is effectively their operating system. The platform hosts _millions_ of mini apps covering a significant percentage of the use cases that a mobile developer elsewhere in the world might build a native app for.

As such, it seems like WeChat has historically gotten away with a lot of stuff kinda sorta on the edge of the policies that Apple enforces on everyone else.

This is a partnership the same way restaurants "partner" with the mob.

> although at 15%, it's half the normal 30% rate for the app store

15% is the normal rate for the App Store. Only developers earning above $1MM/yr through the App Store have to pay 30%, the vast majority of developers only pay 15%.

I assume WeChat is above the $1m/yr threshold

It's not "normal", you have to "apply" (and get auto-accepted) but won't get the rate if you don't know to do that. You'll also get permanently booted from it if you do some things like transfer ownership of an account (if you want to sell an app you made, IIRC you lose access to this program, even if the app makes under a million).

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