19 Jun An Introduction to Chinese App Stores
Apple and China: they play well together. Google and China: not the best of friends.
Actually, that’s an understatement. Back in 2010, a highly publicized dispute erupted between the Chinese government and Google over censorship regulations and hacking accusations. This led to the internet giant moving its domestic traffic and search engine operations over to Hong Kong. Many of Google’s other services and platforms lost traction over time, or were simply banned, meaning that it would join a long list of Western technology companies who had, to put it simply, failed in China.
Google & Apple’s Chinese App Stores
Even though Android is the dominant OS throughout China, Google Play’s presence is extremely limited. The fundamental issue is that Google Play is not able to collect payments, rendering it basically useless to developers. Why publish on a Chinese app store you cannot collect revenue from? Apple’s iOS App Store, on the other hand, always has, and continues to exist problem-free in China.
So while almost all countries have accepted that Android = Google Play and iOS = Apple App Store, in China, Android = a painfully fragmented app store ecosystem.
China’s Fragmented Market
In the void that was left by Google, and with Android smartphones flooding the market, a large number of third-party Android app stores emerged to grab a slice of the increasingly large mobile app market. App stores popped up everywhere, from internet security companies, to search engine and social media players, as well as handset manufacturers and mobile carriers. Currently there are around 200 app stores!
For obvious reasons, this has created a nightmare for foreign developers. Looking at this from a gamer’s point of view helps us understand the situation a little better:
- You own a Sony smartphone
- The “Sony App Store” comes pre-installed on your device, making it your first app store option
- Your carrier is Verizon, and Verizon highly encourages you to download and use its “Verizon App Store”
- At the same time, you’ve heard that Yahoo, Facebook and Symantec (Norton AntiVirus) also own app stores
In order to download more app stores and access a larger number of games, Chinese gamers have to download the app store from APKs found on the web. And sometimes, they download the new store from other existing app stores – how confusing!
This is a rough depiction of the state of China’s mobile app marketplace: fragmented and confusing. What’s important to know is that the 3 layers of app stores are handset manufacturers, mobile carriers and independent third-party stores.
No “one-stop” solution
So why does this all matter? Because, unfortunately, there is no easy solution to publish across all Android stores. Why? Each app store requires a specific type of integration. Monitoring and updating is not centralized, making it difficult and time consuming to manage an app across this many stores. What’s more, only Chinese entities are able to collect revenue, meaning that, unless you have a physical presence or office in China, it will be next to impossible to collect IAP.
Current trends and consolidation
By this point, we hope you haven’t lost all faith! Although there are 200+ Chinese app stores, there is an ongoing consolidation of app stores, with some saying that the top 10 stores now cover some 80% of the market. The competition and consolidation was reflected in Baidu’s $2 billion purchase of the fast growing 91 Mobile Assistant store in 2013.
According to Newzoo, as of April 2015 the top 3 Android app stores by install base or coverage (percentage of Android devices installed on) are:
27% coverage
17% coverage
Though there are strong leaders, competition will continue to be fierce, especially from phone manufacturers as they jostle to be the leading smartphone brand in China. One thing is clear, the fight for the top spot is only getting started. And for Western developers this is good news, with a potential smaller set of stores to deal with.
What next?
Deep down, we all wish Google and China could’ve resolved their issues amicably. We wouldn’t be writing about this if that had been the case! But the reality is that it is unlikely to happen, at least in the near future. Yet the Chinese mobile game market has become too large to ignore, and instead of putting it aside or admitting defeat, we encourage developers from all over the world to have a basic grasp of the situation, so as to at least consider China as a target market.
