(Yicai Global) Sept. 18 -- Apple Inc.'s [NASDAQ:AAPL] App Store Review Guidelines section 3.2.1 article vii was updated to reflect a new policy on monetary gifts.

The newly revised policy says, "apps may enable individual users to give a monetary gift to another individual without using in-app purchase, provided that the gift is a completely optional choice by the giver, and 100 percent of the funds go to the receiver of the gift."

Under this policy Apple does not allow Weibo, WeChat and other platforms to take a cut on tips to the content creators.

Apple previously categorized monetary gifts to content creators in third-party apps as "in-app purchases" (IAP), requiring them to either close the "tip" function, or to grant Apple a 30-percent cut on all transactions. This policy caused quite a bit of controversy. 

In a part of the revision that is easy to overlook Apple says, "a gift that is connected to or associated at any point in time with receiving digital content or services must use in-app purchase."

"This means that Apple believes the tips are for the content creators, and have nothing to do with the content or the services," an Apple insider told The Paper. "If the tip button remains under the WeChat public accounts, Apple will still take a 30-percent cut. If the developers have the content creators' interest at heart, there should be a separate interface, so that Apple won't be able to take the 30-percent cut."