4 out of 10 Domestic App Operators Experience App Market Abuse

KCC Survey: 37.8% of 315 Companies Experienced App Registration Rejection, Review Delays, or Deletion
Some Faced Rejections Without Any Explanation

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] A survey found that 4 out of 10 domestic application (app) operators experienced unfair practices such as app review delays by app markets.

On the 23rd, according to the results of a survey related to Google's in-app payment policy submitted by the Korea Communications Commission to Cho Seung-rae, a member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, 37.8% of the 315 app operators who participated in the survey reported experiencing app registration rejection, review delays, or deletion.

Among these, app registration review delays accounted for the highest at 88.2%, followed by app registration rejection at 44.5%, and app deletion at 33.6%.

The app markets where app developers experienced app registration rejection and similar issues were Google Play Store at 65.5%, Apple App Store at 58.0%, and One Store at 1.7%, respectively.

Cases where app registration rejection and similar actions were taken without separate explanations were reported as 17.9% for Google Play Store and 8.7% for Apple App Store, respectively.

Rep. Cho stated, "Following the Ministry of Science and ICT's survey estimating the scale of damages to domestic app developers, the Korea Communications Commission's investigation revealed unfair practices such as app registration rejection and review delays by app market operators," adding, "Fundamental measures must be prepared to eradicate unfair practices exploiting the dominant position of specific platform operators."

Meanwhile, a recent survey by the Ministry of Science and ICT analyzed that if Google's mandatory in-app payment and 30% commission policy are implemented, commissions in the non-game sector this year could increase from a minimum of 88.5 billion KRW to a maximum of 156.8 billion KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.