"Apple In-App Purchase Price Increase Causes Additional 350 Billion KRW Burden on Domestic Users"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] An analysis has revealed that the additional amount consumers will have to bear annually due to Apple's in-app purchase price increase will reach 350 billion KRW.

Yang Jeong-sook, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, announced on the 5th that this result came from analyzing the number of domestic Apple device users and the app price increases.

If the price increases are applied as is, the additional amount domestic users will have to pay is estimated at 184.8 billion KRW for music content, 110.7 billion KRW for online video services (OTT), and 50.6 billion KRW for webtoons and web novels.

Earlier, Apple decided to raise app and in-app purchase prices in some countries' App Stores, including South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Sweden. Apple sets a tier table ranging from levels 1 to 87 for product payments, and under this new pricing policy, the price for tier 1 will be revised from the existing 1,200 KRW to 1,500 KRW, tier 2 from 2,500 KRW to 3,000 KRW, and tier 3 from 3,900 KRW to 4,400 KRW.

As a result, content prices by developers are also rising one after another. Kakao has decided to raise the price of single emoticons in KakaoTalk from the current 2,500 KRW to 3,000 KRW, and Melon plans to increase the price of its 30-day streaming pass by 1,000 KRW from the current price.

Yang's office requested Apple for data on whether app prices would be adjusted due to exchange rate fluctuations and the progress of app price increases, but Apple Korea did not respond.

Yang said, "I urge app developers to maintain existing prices so that consumers do not bear additional burdens by applying the increased tiers," adding, "To prevent recurrence of the problem, it is necessary to activate competition in the app market and also closely investigate whether Apple's price increase constitutes an abuse of market dominance."