As part of its efforts to further invest in the Chinese market, Apple announced this week that it’s bringing its Apple Developer service to China’s WeChat app. The service includes news, announcements, and other upcoming activities for members of the developer community, which have typically been offered via Apple’s website and its own Developer app.
The move comes amid falling iPhone sales in the Chinese market. In the most recent quarter, sales in China declined 11.1%, impacting iPhone revenue. In part, this is due to Apple facing increased competition from local manufacturers, like Oppo and Huawei. This led the iPhone maker to launch the $599 iPhone 16e with Apple Intelligence.
The company is also reportedly in conversations to bring AI technologies from Tencent and ByteDance to the new device, as it has done in the U.S. with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Tencent, of course, also operates WeChat, a combination messaging, social media, and payments app, that’s heavily used by Chinese users. So Apple’s support for WeChat makes sense not only in the broader context of expanding its reach with Chinese developers but also as a means of sweetening its AI deal.
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