The App Store
The Vivo App store is one of the main mobile application stores in China. The app store is preinstalled on all Vivo smartphones and it claims to have over 10 million free applications and games available to Vivo smartphone users. Vivo is a subsidiary of China’s BKK Electronics which also manufactures important Chinese smartphone brands such as OPPO, OnePlus and Realme. The company has seen significant growth in the past years and as of Q2 2018 Vivo held a market share of 18% in the Chinese smartphone market.
Vivo App Store’s Market Position
The Vivo App Store was the 7th largest app store in the Chinese market in Q2 2018 according to Technode as measured by Monthly Active Users with just under 5% of the market. The position of the Vivo App Store has remained relatively stable over the last year as the Chinese smartphone market has matured.
Source: Technode
Main Differences between Other App Stores
Vivo as a smartphone brand is currently very aggressive in its overseas expansion and hence has enlisted the services of social media influencers in order to both make its brand stronger in China and overseas. The company uses local celebrities such as Cai Xukun who is a famous singer to promote the Vivo brand on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. A screenshot of Vivo’s social media influencer marketing can be seen below:
Source: Vivo
Vivo’s social influencer is not limited to the Chinese market, as the company has also contracted Stephen Curry, an American basketball player in the National Basketball Association’s Golden State Warriors. Stephen Curry is one of the most famous athletes in the United States and the move shows that Vivo has major global ambitions to become a major smartphone vendor and to compete with the likes of Samsung, Apple and other Chinese competitors. Below shows an example of Vivo’s marketing featuring Stephen Curry.
Source: Vivo
Vivo’s App Store also provides a feature to help developers get attention for their apps without paid promotion with a program called the “Aurora Awards”. Developers can submit apps to Vivo which are judged based on the design, quality and innovative features of an app. If an application wins an award it is listed under a special tab which is easy for Vivo App Store users to find and navigate. The chart below shows how an application is discovered for Aurora Award winners.
Source: Vivo
Structure of the App Store
As Vivo is primarily a smartphone manufacturer, its application store is designed to handle multiple functions on a smartphone such as managing apps, photos, contact lists, messages and calendars. A user can see applications in several categories and then sort these applications based on the number of downloads, the rating of the application and the time spent on the application. A screenshot of the Vivo App Store can be seen below:
Our Bonus
A key point to consider when judging the Vivo App Store is that the company has major ambitions to become one of the leading global smartphone vendors. The company is spending aggressively on marketing and was the official smartphone sponsor of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia as an example. The company is trying to create an ecosystem of connected devices and recently launched a smart home Internet of Things platform called “Jovi IoT” to allow home automation. The company has not only done well in the Chinese market but has also pushed into other emerging markets and has a decent market share in countries like India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam. Therefore Vivo’s app store may also become very important in these countries as well so game developers focused on emerging markets should pay attention to their progress in these countries as well.
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