The suspension of Apple Inc's online book and film services does not necessarily show that the Chinese government is imposing stricter curbs on foreign companies, experts said on Friday.
Attempts to access to Apple's iBooks Store and iTunes Movies services were met with an "unavailable" page on Friday.
Zhang Na, Apple's public relations manager, confirmed with the Global Times Friday that "we hope to make books and movies available again to our customers in China as soon as possible," while declining to mention why.
Foreign media like Reuters and the Wall Street Journal have attributed this to the stricter restrictions recently imposed by the Chinese government, saying these regulations have curbed foreign companies' online content.
Jointly issued by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on February 4, the Regulation for the Management of Online Publishing Services aims to set new guidelines on what content can be published online, and who is qualified to participate in this business.
In Article 10, the regulation stipulates that "Chinese-foreign joint ventures, Chinese-foreign cooperative ventures and foreign business units should not engage in online publishing services."
Wang Yanhui, head of the Shanghai-based Mobile China Alliance, argued that the move does not mean tighter restrictions for foreign companies.
"The main reason is that Apple is conducting some internal corrective actions on the server, so to make its servers more adapted to China's rules and regulations," he told the Global Times.
Zhang Bing, an analyst with Shenzhen-based research firm Display Search, said that the closure will significantly decrease the value of Apple's content.
As early as in 2013, Apple's CEO Tim Cook said that he believed China will become Apple's largest market, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
However, Wang added that this incident will not greatly affect Apple's revenue in China, as the services may soon be restored.
