Screenshots seem to show TikTok circumventing Apple's App Store fees by showing some users a link to a site for buying digital coins, instead of using IAPs
TikTok may be routing around the App Store to save money on commissions. According to new findings, the ByteDance-owned social video app …
TechCrunchSarah Perez
Context & Ripple Effects
TikTok’s virtual-currency sales were already a meaningful monetization channel: an earlier estimate found its in-app purchase revenue exceeded that of several major social rivals combined. The reported external-link test therefore concerns a high-value transaction flow, not a marginal feature.
The move also fits TikTok’s longer push to connect creators, commerce, and payments, including its earlier planned creator-linked e-commerce tools. Later reporting that Apple pressed ByteDance and Tencent to close external-payment loopholes shows why even a limited test could become a platform-policy flashpoint.
First-order effects
If the screenshots reflect an active rollout, users shown the link can buy TikTok coins outside Apple’s in-app purchase flow, potentially shifting those transactions away from App Store commissions.
TikTok gains a direct checkout path and greater control over pricing, payment data, and promotions for the users included in the test; Apple faces a potential challenge to its purchase rules.
Second-order effects
Apple is likely to scrutinize the implementation and could require changes if it determines the flow violates App Store terms, as later reports described in its push to close external-payment loopholes.
Other apps with substantial virtual-goods revenue have an incentive to watch whether TikTok can sustain an external route, while developers remain exposed to different enforcement outcomes depending on how links and purchases are presented.
Third-order effects
The dispute highlights how regulated platform take rates become more contested as large apps build direct commerce and payment relationships with users.
If enforcement and alternative checkout experiments continue, monetization may increasingly split between platform-native purchases and developer-controlled web flows, with app-store policy interpretation determining the boundary.
The trend: Large consumer apps are testing how much control they can reclaim over digital-goods payments without losing access to dominant mobile distribution platforms.
Huh, okay, very curious how this turns out! Apple does NOT LIKE IT when an app tries to point users to pay for digital goods outside the App Store!!!!!!!!!!! https://techcrunch.com/...
TikTok might get banned from the app store next week Why? It looks like they're circumventing apple fee by directing users to purchase coins via external payment methods [image]
Apple probably wouldn't do this for fear of market retaliation in China. So TikTok is now gloves off just trying to make as much money as they can to pump up acquisition offers?
@markgurman Add Amazon, Roblox and most of the top games in Southeast Asia to the list of apps Apple would have to ban if it enforced its stated policies equally, as they claim to do.
This feature isn't shown for all users in TikTok and appears to only be shown to a select group of users (the account these screenshots are from has previously purchased a large amount of coins)
TikTok certainly won't be banned for this — they'll be convinced to abandon this checkout method — but the segmentation used here to only deploy the in-app WebView to users that have previously purchased coins is quite ingenious.
In 2020, Fortnite was removed from the app store for a similar interface in which they presented users with an option to bypass apple in-app purchases [image]
Fortnite isn't TikTok. There would be protests at Apple stores. The only way TikTok is removed from the App Store is by a government order. Even then it'll be a nightmare for Apple and Google.