Bad Impact For Apple, If WeChat Is Prohibited From Operating By Trump

Instant messaging app WeChat (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - President Donald Trump has signed an executive policy that will prohibit a number of Chinese applications and companies from operating in the United States. TikTok and WeChat were the first targets of Trump's policies.

Launching from Apple Insider, implementing the policy will indirectly have a negative impact on Apple's business. Where there is a possibility that iPhone sales will decline by 25 to 30 percent, if the official WeChat instant messaging application is banned.

"Since WeChat is so important to Chinese users, integrating communication, payment, e-commerce, social software, news reading and productivity functions, we believe that the move will reduce iPhone shipments in the Chinese market," said analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Tuesday 11 August.

According to him, based on a survey of nearly 700,000 users in China said that they would not buy an iPhone if WeChat was not supported on the device. This will also have an impact on sales of iPhone accessories, such as AirPods, iPads, Apple Watch, and Mac computers that will also be dragged along.

Ming-Chi Kuo's analysis is based on the worst-case scenario of prohibiting other Chinese companies from operating and doing business in the US. That means Trump is indirectly forcing similar applications from China to leave the Apps Store.

"Apple removed WeChat from the App Store in India in response to the government's request. Therefore, we would not be surprised if the US government later asked Apple to do the same," he said.

Unfortunately, WeChat is not a popular app like TikTok, which many US tech companies are currently looking for to acquire. Where Microsof and Twitter are trying to negotiate to own TikTok.

TikTok's market share was around US $ 30 billion, while TikTok's value before President Trump was banned was around US $ 50 billion. Meanwhile, Microsoft instead wants to target TikTok's operations in the US, Canada and Australia with a bid in the range of $ 10-30 billion lower.