Asia Tech Wire (Aug 15) -- Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent has admitted for the first time that it is in talks with Apple over revenue from its WeChat mini-games, which could have a major impact on China's mobile developer ecosystem.

James Mitchell, Tencent's chief strategy officer, told analysts on an earnings call Wednesday that the company is exploring ways to offer in-app transactions through Apple's iOS payment system.

That would allow Apple to start taking a cut of in-game transactions.

This follows a Bloomberg report that Apple has stepped up pressure on Tencent and ByteDance to close loopholes used by their in-app developers to direct users to external payment systems, thereby circumventing the 30% commission Apple would normally charge.

Mitchell revealed that Tencent is not currently monetizing its mini-games through iOS in-app purchases and is discussing the possibility of enabling the feature, which would benefit developers, users, Apple, and Tencent.

According to its financial report for the second quarter of 2024, Tencent's gross profit for the quarter rose 21% year-on-year to 85.9 billion yuan ($12.1 billion), thanks to growth in local market game revenues, fees for services on its mini-game platform, and other high-margin revenue sources.