China world largest population country with world largest smartphone market. China represent a big market for mobile app developer especially for Android App and game developers. But winning in this competitive market of china is more than just localization.
We all know that Apple and China: they play well together.
But Google and China: not the best of friends.
There are more than 200 app stores in china from Baidu app Store to Alibaba and Tencent giants to mobile carriers and smart phone developers, all most each and every startup and big companies in china want to create their own ecosystem through app stores.
If you are thinking to launch your Android app in Chinese market for Chinese users, you need to be research of local trends and, most importantly, you need to understand the Chinese app store landscape rules and regulation. These are the top app stores you need to consider for distribution:
Baidu App Store:
Baidu is the Google of china. It’s a China’s top search engine. Baidu App Store is available for Android. You can install android ‘.apk’ file without sign up or download the actual version. Baidu taking its App Store seriously after dishing out US$1.9 billion to acquire rival 91 Mobile in 2013. Baidu cover 17% App Market in china.
360 Mobile Assistant (Qihoo 360):
360 Mobile Assistant is the biggest app store in China, covering 25% of the Android market. Developed by Qihoo, China’s second-largest search engine. After it’s released 360 mobile assistant has seen a huge increase in users. Last Year, Qihoo reported that their app store had “over 400 million” active users. Here’s where you can get started: developer.360.cn
Tencent App Gem:
Tencent is another very popular china’s app store. Tencent is china’s biggest social media giant, with 700 million monthly active users on its messaging app “WeChat”. It’s now one of the largest in the country covering around 26% app market. Tencent uses its messaging app to give boost to App Gem. Myapp leverages its connection to WeChat to drive users to the store.
MiUi (Xiaomi App Store):
Xiaomi has big name in mobile industry. Xiaomi was the fifth-largest smartphone maker in the last year. This is a fastest growing Chinese smartphone maker. This is not limited to smartphone, it also available as an Android app and a web app that can be use at any Android device. Xiaomi covers 13% app market in china.
Huawei App Store:
Huawei App store run by top Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei. Huawei covering 7% android app market in china and the Huawei App Store taps into a built in Android user base that continues to grow as Huawei expands its smartphone market share in China.
91 Mobile Assistant:
It was the china’s first startup app stores for Android apps. After its success it was acquired by Baidu search engine in 2013. This app store still remain some of the top Android app stores in China and still run under its own name and covering 3% app market.
Final Words:
It’s very important for Android app developers to remember that each of these app stores has different terms and condition and diverse user bases. Before developing and publishing in a Chinese app stores, make sure to do your research to make sure your app will find the right audience! And for Chinese store optimization and marketing your app feel free to contact me or follow me on twitter for more good stuff like this.