Some American multinationals fear the White House will stop this Chinese app accused like TikTok of threatening national security
by Biagio Simonetta
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Some American multinationals fear the White House will stop this Chinese app accused like TikTok of threatening national security
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Fear is that of falling under friendly fire. So some American companies, including Apple, Disney and Ford, are trying to understand the possible repercussions of the commercial ban that Donald Trump has also foreseen for WeChat. Although the app owned by Tencent has caused less discussion than TikTok, the WeChat one, at the end of the games, could prove to be a real boomerang.
The news was reported on Wall Street Journal, according to which a dozen big US companies (including Apple, Ford, Walmart and Disney) have had very intense talks with some White House officials to talk about the ban on WeChat and the possible negative repercussions on the activities of these same companies. It all started a few days ago when Trump signed a highly anticipated presidential decree on TikTok. Within this decree, somewhat surprisingly, WeChat was also banned.In the United States, WeChat has 3 million active users: it is widely used by Chinese-Americans to communicate with relatives in China and now it will be prohibited for reasons related to national security.
In China, however, WeChat is much more than just an App. It is used for micropayments, for e-commerce, to pay for the train, to enter the cinema. In some regions it is also a real identification document.
The fear of Apple
It is fair to say that in China, if a smartphone is not compatible with WeChat, it is practically cut off from the market. And this is Apple’s fear that if it were forced to eliminate WeChat from the App Store around the world, it would risk collapse in China, with huge losses on the sales front. Even American companies with businesses not really related to the smartphone market, advance several reasons for concern. Not being able to market products or handle transactions on WeChat in China would significantly hinder business in that country.
In talks with White House officials, Apple and others have pushed for the scope of the executive order to be restricted to US territory and clarified. Currently, in fact, it is not yet clear whether the ban imposed by Trump concerns only the American territory or is global. In the first case, WeChat would disappear from the smartphones of US users (or in any case present on US territory). And it wouldn’t hurt iPhone sales much. Very likely, then, that Trump will consider this pitfall that is not at all trivial.
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