Distimo Shares Information On Asian App Market - China Now Second Largest
by Joe White
June 22, 2011
In a recent report, application store analytics company Distimo investigated the changing app market, and came up with some interesting findings. Not only are some Western countries losing interest in mobile applications, but China - who only got their own App Store last fall - is now the second largest app market (behind the USA).
In the West, France and Germany saw a decrease in iPhone app download volume over the last six months, while many Asian countries saw an increase. For example - South Korea now boasts a higher app download volume than France or Germany, despite the country having a smaller population, and no "Games" category in the App Store.
Furthermore, China now holds the second largest app market (after the United States). As mentioned, China only got their own "tailored" App Store last fall, making the rapid adoption of applications all the more impressive.
The study also found that Asian app fans are more likely to use an ad-support free app, than pay for an ad-free version. Equally, in-app purchases haven't been all that successful in Asia. As TechCrunch notes:
For example, in China only 34% of the revenue from the 200 top grossing applications originates from applications that feature in-app purchase. But that doesn’t mean that in-app purchases could quickly scale in Asian markets in the coming year. In the U.S., in-app payments nearly doubled in a year. Distimo says in June 2010, revenue from applications that feature in-app purchase in the United States was only 39%, however by May 2011 it increased to 68%.Interestingly, localized apps are pretty popular in China, South Korea and Japan. For example, in China, 65 percent of the 300 most popular apps are regional. In Asia in general, this figure drops to 34 percent - however, when compared with the USA (where only 20 percent of these apps are regional) the figure is still great. The app market in Asia is still growing, and already it's huge. Let us know your thoughts on this study in the comments. [gallery]
