2022年经济学人 软件应用商店这桩大生意（在线收听）

Business

商业

App store fees -- Store wars

应用商店抽成--商店大战

Laws and litigation threaten a big source of Apple's and Google's profits

法规和诉讼威胁着苹果和谷歌的一大利润来源

What does it take to rein in two of the biggest companies on the planet?

如何才能约束世界上最大的两家公司？

A coalition of Swedish music-streamers, South Korean politicians and Dutch dating apps, apparently.

一个由瑞典音乐流媒体、韩国政客和荷兰约会应用软件组成的联盟，表面上来看是这样的。

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.

他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.

应用商店是桩大生意，去年的销售额总计达到1330亿美元，是过去5年销售额之和的3倍。

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.

苹果和谷歌从中抽取高达30%的分成，这被认为贡献了苹果和谷歌母公司Alphabet五分之一的营业利润。

The 30% levy began in Apple's iTunes music store and was copied to its iPhone app store, launched in 2008.

30%的抽成始于苹果的iTunes音乐商店，后被同样应用到2008年推出的iPhone应用商店中。

As people came to use their phones for gaming, streaming and much else, it evolved into a tax on digital activity.

随着人们开始用手机玩游戏、看视频，以及做其它很多事情，它演变成了一种数码活动税。

Sign up to a service like Disney+ on your phone and Apple or Google get a cut of your subscription for ever.

当你在手机上签约订阅像Disney+这样的服务时，苹果或谷歌将持续从你的订阅中获得一部分分成。

Apps have had to use the tech duo's payment systems, and could not tell users about other ways to sign up.

应用软件不得不使用这两家科技公司的支付系统，并且无法告知用户使用其他方式订阅。

Gripes 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.

应用程序开发者的抱怨仅迫使他们做出了很小的让步：去年，苹果表示将允许他们链接外部支付页面，谷歌减少了它从订阅中抽取的费用。

Now, though, the dam is bursting.

不过现在，大坝正在决堤。

Last summer South Korea banned app stores from forcing developers to use a particular payment system.

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。

In December Dutch regulators made a similar ruling against Apple, after a complaint by developers of dating apps.

去年12月，在约会应用软件开发者提出投诉后，荷兰监管机构做出了类似的不利于苹果的裁决。

On March 23rd the trend went global.

3月23日，这一趋势在全球范围内蔓延。

Google announced a deal with Spotify, a vocal critic of app-store fees, to let the music-streamer handle its own billing.

谷歌宣布与声讨应用商店抽成的Spotify达成协议，允许这家音乐流媒体公司自己处理账单。

Google will lower its commission rate, probably in line with the four-percentage-point cut agreed in South Korea.

谷歌将下调佣金费率，可能与韩国达成的4个百分点的下调幅度一致。

It says more deals are on the way.

该公司表示，之后还会有更多优惠条款。

Google's magnanimity anticipates laws that may require bigger concessions.

谷歌的高姿态预示着法律可能要求作出更大的让步。

A bill before America's Congress would force app stores to allow payment alternatives and let apps advertise other ways to sign up.

提交给美国国会的一项法案将强制要求应用商店允许使用其它支付方式，并允许应用程序公布其他订阅渠道。

A bigger threat comes from the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), approved in draft form on March 24th.

更大的威胁来自欧盟的数字市场法案，该法案于3月24日以草案的形式获得通过。

The colossal bill covers various aspects of digital markets, including app stores.

这一庞大的法案涵盖了数字市场的各个方面，包括应用商店。

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 -- something Google permits but Apple does not.

将于明年生效的DMA将迫使移动平台允许第三方应用商店和直接通过网络“侧载”应用--谷歌允许这一操作，但苹果不允许。

Offenders face fines of up to 20% of worldwide revenue and bans on acquisitions.

违规者将面临高达其全球收入20%的罚款，并被禁止参与收购。

Apple's boss, Tim Cook, has warned that sideloading would "destroy the security of the iPhone".

苹果公司的老板蒂姆·库克警告称，侧载会“损害iPhone的安全性”。

That is a bit much: Apple allows sideloading on its desktop computers without calamity.

这有点过头了：苹果允许在其台式电脑上进行侧载，没有造成什么灾难。

But Apple's much bigger share of the mobile market could make the iPhone a juicier target for malware.

但苹果在移动市场上的份额更大，这可能会使iPhone更成为恶意软件更青睐的攻击目标。

And the company trades heavily on privacy and security.

该公司在隐私和安全方面下了很大功夫。

Despite what the authors of the DMA seem to believe, writes Benedict Evans, a tech analyst, you cannot "pass laws against trade-offs".

科技分析师本尼迪克特·埃文斯写道，不管DMA的发起者是怎么认为的，你都不能“通过不平衡的法规”。