Apple has removed 46 thousand applications from the Chinese App Store

By information Reuters, Dec 31, 2020 Apple removed 39,000 game apps from the Chinese App Store. In addition to games, the company removed more than 7,000 other applications. The developers and publishers of these programs have not received licenses from local authorities. This is the biggest cleanup the company has done in its app store at a time.

Apple has removed the bulk of the top paid games in the Chinese App Store. For example, Assassin’s Creed Identity and NBA 2K20 have been removed. In fact, of the 1,500 popular revenue generating apps, 74 remain.

A spokesperson for AppInChina, a company that helps overseas companies distribute their apps to the local market, explained that China issued very few licenses for foreign games in 2020. This is likely to cause most game developers to switch to the in-ad model for their Chinese versions.

Mobile app developers who release their products to the Chinese market are required to obtain a license from the country’s National Printing and Publishing Administration. Until July 2020, almost all applications were published in the Chinese AppStore without checking this license. Since mid-summer last year, Apple has begun to enforce the new rules in China. The company has given developers and publishers a time limit to obtain the necessary state licenses for their applications by the end of the year.

Early July Apple has suspended updates of thousands of game apps in the Chinese App Store because the developers did not have the required Chinese licenses.

In mid-July, Apple removed 2,500 games from the Chinese AppStore due to a lack of local licenses.