China orders app stores to register with the government

The Cyberspace Administration of China recently made an announcement on its website, requiring all mobile app stores to register with its offices. The next price level will be bumped up from £1.49 to £1.99, and so on.

Prices in the UK’s App Store are set to rise 25 percent as the pound continues to lose value after Brexit.

In October a year ago, Apple hiked the prices of their Macbook laptops and other hardware by up to £500 in response to Brexit. Until Apple announced the change on its developer site, initial app downloads were limited to 200 MB. The figure represents a 59% increase from the $3.4 billion the App Store raked in during the same period in 2015, indicating that Cupertino’s app revenues are growing at a healthy clip. Apps that costs $2.99 in the USA, for instance, will now cost 2.99 pounds. According to Chinese officials, it also has a lot to do with many app stores having poor management, Engadget reports.

Some top of the range models had their prices increased for £500 more than they were before the vote. Based on those headline stats alone the United Kingdom mobile gaming industry is going to be seriously impacted by the increased pricing, which will inevitably bite into consumers willingness to purchase both apps and in-app purchases.

“2016 was a record-shattering year for the App Store, generating $20 billion for developers, and 2017 is off to a great start with January 1 as the single biggest day ever on the App Store”, said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

The US market research company also highlighted the rise of Line Manga, the online comic reader and sales platform operated by Line, which ranked No. 7 in overall revenue for both app stores combined.

In its statement, the CAC said that in order to “promote the healthy and orderly development of the [app store industry]” it had launched the app store filing mechanism.