来源：《经济学人》
原文见刊日期：2022年4月2日
What does it take to rein in two of the biggest companies on the planet? A coalition of Swedish music-streamers, South Korean politicians and Dutch dating apps, apparently. They seem to be succeeding where America’s federal government has failed: to force changes to the way Apple and Google run their app stores.
怎样才能制约世界上最大的两家公司？似乎，一个由瑞典音乐流媒体、韩国政客和荷兰约会应用程序组成的联盟做到了这一点。它们似乎在美国联邦政府失败的地方取得了成功：迫使苹果和谷歌改变其应用程序商店的运营方式。
The app stores are big businesses, with combined sales last year of $133bn, three times the total five years earlier. Apple and Google take a cut of up to 30%, which is thought to contribute a fifth of the operating profits at Apple and Alphabet, Google’s parent company. The 30% levy began in Apple’s iTunes music store and was copied to its iPhone app store, launched in 2008. As people came to use their phones for gaming, streaming and much else, it evolved into a tax on digital activity. Sign up to a service like Disney+ on your phone and Apple or Google get a cut of your subscription for ever. Apps have had to use the tech duo’s payment systems, and could not tell users about other ways to sign up. Complaints from app developers have forced only minor concessions: last year Apple said it would let them link to external payment pages and Google reduced its fees for subscriptions. Now, though, the dam is bursting.
应用程序商店是大生意，去年的总销售额为1330亿美元，是5年前总销售额的3倍。苹果公司和谷歌公司抽取了高达30%的分成，这被认为贡献了苹果公司和谷歌母公司Alphabet五分之一的营业利润。30%的分成从苹果的iTunes音乐商店开始，并被复制到2008年推出的iPhone应用程序商店。随着人们开始用手机玩游戏、使用流媒体和其他很多东西，这种强制分成演变为一种针对数字活动的税。在你的手机上注册Disney+这样的服务，苹果或谷歌就可以从你的订阅费中获得分成。应用程序必须使用这两家科技公司的支付系统，而且不能告诉用户其他注册方式。来自应用程序开发者的抱怨只迫使它们做出了微小的让步：去年苹果表示将允许开发者链接到外部支付页面，谷歌降低了订阅费分成比例。然而现在，大坝正在决堤。
Last summer South Korea banned app stores from forcing developers to use a particular payment system. In December Dutch regulators made a similar ruling against Apple, after a complaint by developers of dating apps. On March 23rd the trend went global. Google announced a deal with Spotify to let the music-streamer handle its own billing. Google will lower its commission rate, probably in line with the four-percentage-point cut agreed in South Korea. It says more deals are on the way.
去年夏天，韩国禁止应用商店强迫开发者使用特定的支付系统。去年12月，荷兰监管机构在收到约会应用程序开发者的投诉后，对苹果做出了类似裁决。3月23日，这一趋势走向全球。谷歌宣布与Spotify达成一项协议，让Spotify自行处理支付。谷歌将下调佣金率，这可能与在韩国达成的下调4%的协议相一致。谷歌表示，更多协议正在进行中。
This anticipates laws that may require bigger concessions. A bill before America’s Congress would force app stores to allow payment alternatives and let apps advertise other ways to sign up. A bigger threat comes from the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), approved in draft form on March 24th. The huge bill covers various aspects of digital markets, including app stores. The DMA, which is on track to come into force next year, would force mobile platforms to allow third-party app stores and “sideloading” of apps directly from the web. Offenders face fines of up to 20% of worldwide revenue and bans on acquisitions. Breaking open walled gardens, the DMA’s proponents say, will strengthen competition.
这预示着法律将要求更大的让步。美国国会正在审议的一项议案将迫使应用程序商店允许其他支付方式，并允许应用程序展示其他注册方式。更大的威胁来自于3月24日以草案形式通过的欧盟数字市场法案(DMA)。这个巨大法案涵盖了数字市场的各个方面，包括应用程序商店。DMA有望于明年生效，它将迫使移动平台允许使用第三方应用商店和直接从网络“侧载”应用程序。违规者将面临高达全球收入20%的罚款和收购禁令。DMA的支持者说，打破封闭花园将加强竞争。