Last week, two major Apple internet services were shut down. Now, a report claims the closure was mandated by a state agency in an attempt to control content distribution.
The New York Times reports that China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television shut down Apple’s iTunes Movies and iBooks Store. Interestingly enough, China’s president Xi Jinping set up a meeting with the country’s tech giants after the shutdown. In order to discuss content distribution policies, Jinping has met with Alibaba’s Jack Ma, Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei, among other highly important tech players.
“China must improve management of cyberspace and work to ensure high-quality content with positive voices creating a healthy, positive culture that is a force for good,” Xi said, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
Apple has worked hard to grow its business in China, which is now its second largest market. However, this market is very closed and censored. During the last several years, the Cupertino-based company was in negotiations with China Mobile, in an effort to bring the iPhone to its 700 million customers. This seemed to have caused some issues since it was reported that Huawei (one of the leading Chinese smartphone makers) faced inventory losses and squeezed market share following the launch of the iPhone SE.
Another Apple’s great success was bringing Apple Pay into China, thanks to a partnership with UnionPay, China’s state-run interbank network. It is unknown how the shutdown of Apple’s content distribution services will after other Apple services, even though Apple Pay is fully functional at the moment. It was also rumored that the biggest Apple Store in the world will soon be opened in Dalian, China.
The shutdown of Apple’s content distribution services will be a serious blow to the company. After all, China is probably the most important market for the iPhone-maker, which is expected to overtake the U.S. in terms of revenue.
