There was noise last week that Apple not offering WeChat on iPhones was one of the reasons for Apple's fall to the fifth position in the Chinese market with Oppo, Vivo, Huawei and Xiaomi overtaking them. While the story from China's 'The Star' appears to have been propaganda against Apple, we learn now that perhaps there was a missing element not articulated in the original Chinese report. A Shanghaiist report published yesterday confirmed that 'WeChat Pay' can now be used in Apple's App Store. It's great timing before the new iPhones debut in just weeks.

The Shanghaiist report states that "Apple continues with its waving of white flags in China, announcing that it will finally allow its users to utilize WeChat Pay to make purchases in both its App Store and Apple Music store.

The Silicon Valley tech giant has long been reluctant to permit its users to employ third-party payment apps, hoping to push more people towards its own Apple Pay service.

However, the company appears to have finally admitted that that business decision is hurting its prospects in one of its most important markets."

The Shanghaiist report further noted that "This latest move appears to signal Apple's acceptance that its own payment app will never be able to compete with the two domestic giants in China that now hold 93.2% market share.. Alipay holds 53.7% while WeChat Pay holds 39.5% market share. The report noted that Apple Pay only holds 1% in China."

During Apple's financial conference last month Apple's CEO said during the Q&A segment that he sees "Tencent as one of our biggest and best developers. They've done a great job of implementing iOS features in their apps, and we're looking forward to working with them even more to build even greater experiences for our mutual users in China."  

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