Given the new regulations of the European Union, Apple does not believe that iMessage should enter as it is not so big in Europe.
The recent European Union Digital Markets Law has named Apple a “guardian” for its importance on the continent. This means that is a company large enough to benefit from a series of measuresamong which we have the obligation to open its application store.
One of the stipulated measures is the “interoperability of messaging services”, which would force Apple to make iMessage compatible with other messaging apps. However, Apple understands that iMessage is not big enough in Europe as to take advantage of this measure.
Apple doesn’t want iMessage to open up to other messaging apps
Apple doesn’t think iMessage is big enough to be “guardian”
Although Apple has not made an official statement, through the Financial Times we can know what the company thinks. Apple claims iMessage isn’t big enough enough to be classified as a coverage service under the definitions of the EU Digital Markets Law regulation.
The law says that For a service to be considered “gatekeeper” it must have more than 45 million monthly active users in the European Union. In addition, the company must have a turnover in the EU of more than 7,500 million euros per year or a market capitalization of more than 75,000 million euros.
There are over a billion iPhones in use around the world and in Europe the iPhone has a 25% market share. However, Apple has never disclosed the number of monthly active users of iMessageso it is difficult to know for sure how many active users Apple’s messaging app has in each country.
It’s true that iMessage is pre-installed on every iPhone, but in Europe WhatsApp is much more popular than iMessage, even among iPhone users. Therefore, it is possible that the European Commission opens investigation forcing Apple to reveal how many active iMessage users there are in Europe.
Where Apple is working is to offer alternative app stores or at least a way to install apps on the iPhone from outside the App Store. Apple did reveal that the App Store has more than 100 million active users in Europe, well above the 45 million threshold. And that is why it should open up to other alternatives in the near future. But the App Store is used by all iPhone users, iMessage is not.