Millions of Apple loyalists in China are now reconsidering using their iPhone after Trump announced to cut-off from WeChat. The US president has last week barred US companies to stop transacting with Tencent, the parent company of WeChat, which is everything for Chinese users in their daily lives. Thus, analysts expect Apple to take the hardest hit if WeChat is ordered to take down from iPhones.
Trump’s Order on WeChat Can Affect Apple Much
As Bloomberg gathered from various users and analysts, opinions tell that Apple could struggle with the sale in China if the WeChat ban is effective. Last week, Donal Trump has signed an executive order to stop US companies from transacting with Tencent and ByteDance, which makes two of the world’s popular apps, WeChat and TikTok respectively.
While the order is going to be effective from mid-September, opinions pour out unfavorable to Apple, as analysts and Chinese users reveal they’d rather forgo their iPhones for WeChat!
If this being the case, Apple may gradually lose its second-biggest market after the US. China has been Apple’s top international market with sales of about $43.7 billion in 2019. This was even declined to 17% from the previous year’s 25% share.
After all, the American firm is having its largest manufacturing plants for iPhones in China. All these facts could soon haunt Apple if Trump’s order is effective. Moreover, the local competitors like Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo are aggressive enough to capture any market left by Apple, as they have already produced their 5G flagship handsets which becomes more attractive for Android transition.
Analysts call about 25-30% of iPhone sales and 15-20% of Apple devices like Macs, AirPods, Apple Watch and iPads could be declined, as Chinese users are deeply addicted to WeChat. The Tencent made app has over one billion users worldwide and is used for multi-purposes like paying for utilities, transportation, food, chatting, shopping, etc.
