China’s biggest messaging app is on a collision course with Apple

Apple’s App Store is a US$28 billion business – of which Apple itself pocketed a tidy US$8.4 billion in 2016. With 2.2 million apps, it’s an empire that Tim Cook’s company protects with all its firepower.

But it’s now under threat more than ever.

The latest and boldest challenge comes from China. WeChat, the nation’s top messaging app with over 840 million active users, this week rolled out a system that allows people on its social network to access apps that don’t need to be downloaded or installed.

These instant apps, produced by an array of small startups and major companies including McDonalds and Apple-backed Didi Chuxing, bypass Apple’s App Store entirely. Accessible only within WeChat, they look and feel like apps, but they can be discarded as easily and quickly as a chat. If you want, you can keep the service within WeChat and even log in to it.

There are no app updates, no icons clogging your homescreen.

GIF credit: Tech in Asia.

This could be the future of apps. And that’s not something Tim Cook wants to hear.

Ethereal

WeChat, run by Tencent, China’s US$240 billion social media giant, isn’t the only one trying to topple Apple’s statue.

Back in November, Facebook wheeled out Instant Games, which work on the social network and the Messenger app. “This new games experience allows people to easily discover, share, and play games without having to install new apps,” explained Mark Zuckerberg’s company.

Launching with a handful of casual titles, including Words With Friends, Facebook’s games for Messenger show how Apple’s App Store profits, so dependent on games, could be eroded very quickly.

Facebook is behind another big threat to Apple: chatbots.

When Zuckerberg last year talked about his ambitions for bots on the social network, he requested a bouquet of flowers by sending a message to 1-800-Flowers.

Siri-ous situation