App Annie, the app intelligence firm which had previously predicted that China will overtaken the U.S. to become the largest market in the world for App Store revenue by the year end, has announced that its prediction have finally come true. China is now the largest market for mobile applications, going by revenue earned. Do note that when mentioning App Store, we are referring to the app market for iOS devices.
Gone are the days when U.S. aced it all. App consumption on the iOS platform in China has led to earnings of over $1.7 billion in the third quarter of 2016, which puts it ahead of the U.S. by well over 15 percent.
The U.S. had been the number one iOS market since 2010, the report notes. However, it is no longer true and the title has now been snagged by China. Today, Chinese consumers spend over 5 times the amount they were spending compared to just two years ago.
This growth is largely being driven by games considering that they play a huge role in determining the total revenue generated — often regardless of the platform. According to App Annie, games drive almost 75 percent of App Store revenue. Indeed, it would almost appear as if the Chinese inhabitants have been really doubling down upon gaming of late.
Thanks to newer revenue streams such as in-app subscriptions, it is also expected that the non-game applications including those in categories like Entertainment, Social Networking, Books, Photo and Video applications will also begin to see their revenues grow in the upcoming years.
The report by App Annie also observed the ongoing popularity of the game: Pokémon Go. The games managed to reach $600 million faster than some of the most popular titles, including Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans and so on. Not only this, the game has also become one of the top 5 apps on Android, occupying the 4th place after Facebook, Chrome and YouTube.
Meanwhile, China is expected to continue propelling growth. According to App Annie’s next prediction, China will drive the largest absolute revenue growth for any country with regards to smartphone applications, by 2020. We have a couple of years before this prediction comes true — or does not, as the case may be. Until then, stay tuned!
