China is the most populated country in the world, the most advanced when it comes to technology, and definitively the biggest market in the world when it comes to mobile users. Chinese mobile apps market is quite different from others. That is why it’s not enough simply to translate your interface into the local language to create a successful app for this market.
So what does it take to make a suitable and attractive app or game for the Chinese market?
Let’s check some statistics to help us in supporting the idea of why China in the first place.
A recent report on Chinese Mobile Gaming Market has shown that Chinese Mobile Gaming Market value has reached a growth of 250% in consumer spend since 2015, which is a big number for an industry that is “very young” compared to others.
The report titled “2017 Retrospective: A Monumental Year for the App Economy” published by App Annie on January 17, 2018 mentions that the mobile gaming industry revenue in China has increased from $3 billion to $11 billion in the last two years, making it the third most valuable market in the world, however in more recent statistics China has already surpassed this position leaving Japan and USA behind in the App Economy.
It means that China is not just a wide audience to look at, it’s a whole country of financially reliable users that are open to mobile business.
Entering the Chinese market: before the app
Chinese mobile market has some features that make it stand apart from other countries. It’s necessary to know these basics before you can start an actual development.
- There is no Google Play in China. The big fire wall exists, and it’s real, and Google is one of the platforms that is currently banned in China. There have been some rumors in the past about the removal of this ban, but it’s not happening.
- You can find international apps in Chinese Stores and even download it. Still, there is no guarantee that this app will work.
- Many Chinese companies such as XiaoMi, Huawei, and of course Tencent, among others; created their own Stores for apps to patch up the hole in Android apps market that appeared with the ban of Google. One of the most popular stores, Tencent MyApp, offers Chinese apps together with international ones to download. Many smartphones developers pre-install their Stores on their devices. On the whole, there are more than 20 big local distributors, each of them is covering their own region of the country. To promote your app, you’ll need to speak with every distributor separately.
- Promoting iOS app, on the contrary, has little differences from working with any other apps store. In China the most popular app stores are for Android, so you might want to prioritize this store over iOS.
- Every mobile or web business in China needs to acquire a special license. Depending on the type of the service you may need some additional documentation. Remember to consult on this matter before you start working on the app. It’s important to remember that this license is given to Chinese companies only and you’ll need a Chinese partner in any case. All your servers also need to be placed in China.
- For new players on the market, it’s also important to consider some payment differences. Every payment in China is made with mobile transactions or with help of electronic wallets. There is only a small percentage of people who use credit cards.
- Last but not least, we suggest you use localization instead of translation. It’s not enough to translate your screens into Chinese, as you might be losing valuable information from your app or game. You must also know that the Chinese language is wide as there are many dialects, so it is important to hire an agency who can consider these aspects and more.
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