95% of Chinese users surveyed would rather give up their iPhones than lose WeChat

As a ban on WeChat and other apps originating from China fabric, companies doing business in China and iPhone users in the country are worried about how the ban could affect device sales and the daily use of devices .

It is not yet clear if the ban applies to the WeChat app only in the United States or if it will result in the removal of the WeChat app from iPhones all over the world. Tencent, which owns WeChat, said it believes the ban only applies in the US, but is seeking clarity. The wording in the executive order is vague, prohibits any transaction related to WeChat, and it is up to the commerce department to work out the details.

A WeChat ban in the US has the potential to cause a slight decline in sales, but a WeChat ban in China would be devastating for Apple, as many Chinese ‌iPhone‌ users feel that their devices would be useless without the WeChat app.

In a Weibo survey highlighted by Bloomberg, for example, 95 percent of the 1.2 million people who responded said they would switch to an Android smartphone over a ‌iPhone‌ instead of giving up WeChat. WeChat has more than 1.2 billion monthly active users, many of them in China.

One user in Hong Kong, Kenny Ou, told Bloomberg that a WeChat ban would turn the ‌iPhone‌ into “electronic trash”, while another, Sky Ding, said that WeChat is so important that most Chinese users would rather switch phones. “My family in China are all used to WeChat and all of our communication is on the platform,” Ding said.

Many U.S. companies, including Apple, Ford, Walmart, and Disney, intend to persuade the Trump administration not to ban WeChat. According to The Wall Street Journal, more than a dozen U.S. companies raised concerns in a conversation with White House officials on Tuesday, with Apple included in the call.

“For those who do not live in China, they do not understand how much the implications are if U.S. companies are not allowed to use it,” said Craig Allen, chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council. “They will be held at a heavy disadvantage for any competitor,” he added.

In a recent note to investors, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that global ‌iPhone‌ shipments could decrease by 25 to 30 percent if Apple is forced to remove WeChat from the App Store worldwide. However, if WeChat is only removed from the US ‌App Store‌, ‌iPhone‌ sales may be affected by 3 to 6 percent.

The Trump administration intends to ban all U.S. transactions with ByteDance (which makes TikTok) and Tencent. The ban was announced on August 7 and there are 39 days left before it goes into effect.

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