With the US government considering a ban on popular Chinese social media app WeChat, there are concerns that this ban could have bigger implications than previously thought. For example, it could impact companies such as Apple who have a huge presence in China, and is estimated to potentially lose billions in iPhone sales if the app were to be banned in China,
However, the semi good news is that according to a report from Bloomberg, their sources have told them instead of a blanket ban, the ban of the use of the app might only apply to the US, meaning that the rest of the world is free to keep using the app. It was previously unclear how the government would approach the ban, because given that Apple is a US company, it was speculated that maybe the ban could force Apple to just simply stop all dealings with China.
However, it should be noted that WeChat is one of the primary forms of communication over in China where other popular messaging apps either don’t work or don’t work as well as intended. As a result, people who live in the US might still rely on WeChat for communications with either family members, friends, or business partners over in China.
A recent survey also found that many Chinese customers would stop buying and using an iPhone if such a ban were to go into effect, resulting in Apple losing billions. However, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had previously predicted that if this were to be a US-only ban, it might not be as bad, suggesting that shipments could decline by 3-6%.
Filed in . Read more about Apps, China, iOS and Wechat. Source: bloomberg