China Overtakes the US in iOS App Store Revenue (techcrunch.com) 53
Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch: China has now overtaken the U.S. to become the largest market in the world for App Store revenue, according to a new report out this morning from app intelligence firm App Annie. The country earned over $1.7 billion in Q3 2016, which puts it ahead of the U.S. by over 15 percent. The U.S. had been the number one iOS market since 2010, the report notes. Today, Chinese consumers spend more than 5 times the amount they were spending compared with just two years prior. In addition, the report predicts that China will drive the largest absolute revenue growth for any country by 2020. The estimations are likely accurate -- App Annie had said at the beginning of the year that if China's rapid App Store revenue growth continued at the same pace, it would overtake the U.S. by year's end. And that has now occurred. This growth is largely being driven by games, and here, China's lead has also widened over the U.S. during the past quarter. Games drive 75 percent of App Store revenue, even though non-game apps make up the majority (75%) of those distributed in Apple's mobile marketplace.
I wonder.. (Score:1)
Not how China will cope with being world number 1, but how America will deal with losing it.
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It is inevitable that as any country becomes "developed", the size of their market will be highly correlated to their population. My country (the US) likes to think its something intrinsic about our people or society which has made us #1, but by far the most important thing going for us is a large developed population under the control of a strong single government.
It is no small feat to contain a 300+ million educated and developed population under a single unified society. Russia failed in the 80's, Europ
How much was stolen Indian ATM purchases? (Score:1)
A record number of Indian debit cards were stolen and used in China and the US.
How many of these stolen Indian ATM purchases were in the iOS Apple store?
There's your missing money, and your bump.
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Really. this article [bloombergquint.com] says it's 3.2 million debit cards. That adds up to a lot of iOS purchases at the same time as this spike.
Coincidence?
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Are you iOS or Android. Android has more free apps available, a larger % of iOS apps require money.
I wonder how much this has to do with China using older apple devices whereas most people in the west have moved on to Android now. Is Apple still big in China?
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Apple has never been big in China. Android always had a wide lead. Apple is relatively strong in the US and Austrlia (although Android still lead) but Android has about 80% market share worldwide and it's because of countries such as China, Brazil, and to a lesser extent the EU.
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If you read my message you would have understand that I meant Android always had the lead in China. Oswald McWeany implied that China was more an iPhone country (unlike the rest of the world which is more Android) and that alone explained why China is now #1 in app store revenues
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Too much piracy on Android to make money selling apps on the platform. It's why the vast majority of apps on Android are free and are loaded with ads that rape all your data from your phone.
iOS users generally pay for apps, so developers get compensated
Re:Who pays for apps? (Score:4, Insightful)
And that is why the app stores (both iOS and Android, but Android in particular) are flooded with shitty micropayment systems and/or crazy amounts of ads.
There are lots of apps on the app store that I am very happy to give money for, because I want to provide direct support for those developers and keep them making more stuff.
Stuff like 1password for password management, the Rooms game series, a very well done transit tracking app, etc.
None of them are particularly expensive, and all are very worth while.
The fact that iOS is doing so well compared to Android boils down to the fact that iOS users are more willing to open their wallets. That's why there are a lot more higher-quality apps. For example, both platforms include an official Scrabble game as a freebee, loading with an absurd amount of ads. My spouse and I were playing it on different devices, so I figured I'd just buy paid-for copies to get rid of the ads. I could do that in iOS, but when I looked on Google Play, they didn't even bother offering it.
Decent software doesn't just materialize out of the sky. You gotta pay for it somehow.
(All this of course, ignores companies like EA that have made a business model out of shitty software...)
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Not super surprising (Score:2)
Remember that the bulk of humanity resides in China and India. "The west" is a minority on planet Earth. And iPhone apps are a low cost thing. The smartphone itself is kinda expensive, but they're so useful that they're pretty ubiquitous, even in poorer locale. China's been "waking up", modernizing, constructing, and growing at breakneck rates for a couple decades now.
Also remember that if China and India start consuming at the rate that the median American does, global warming and climate change will go th
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Also remember that if China and India start consuming at the rate that the median American does, global warming and climate change will go through the roof.
You used the word "if" incorrectly.
You meant "when".
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Remember that the bulk of humanity resides in China and India.
Actually, it's about 1/3rd of humanity lives in either China or India. Not quite the "bulk of humanity", although certainly more than lives in the "West".
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And iPhone apps are a low cost thing. The smartphone itself is kinda expensive, but they're so useful that they're pretty ubiquitous, even in poorer locale.
Being a poorer locale actually helps smart phones. In a lot of poorer countries people completely skip getting a computer in exchange they just get a smart phone. Smartphones are the primary computing device in poorer countries so they're more likely to buy apps that they can use on their phone than they are to buy a computer program.
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Also remember that if China and India start consuming at the rate that the median American does, global warming and climate change will go through the roof.
Which is why the US must act now to fight global warming.
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Which is why the US must act now to fight global warming.
Or more reasonably the US must accept that global warming will happen, and the focus needs to be on mitigating the damage not feebly trying to prevent it.
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You just made a fallacy. Global warming is not binary. A 3 warming is much worse than a 2 warming.
And we must do both, reduce emissions and adapt to the warming.
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You just made a fallacy. Global warming is not binary. A 3 warming is much worse than a 2 warming.
And we must do both, reduce emissions and adapt to the warming.
I agree, we should do both, although I feel a more accurate ratio would be 20 warming with little work on reducing emissions, and 18 warming with significant emission reduction by developed nations. We need to realize only about 15% of the world's population can be considered developed, and almost no matter what we do emissions will skyrocket as the other 85% catches up over the next 100 years. I hesitate to say reducing emissions in a significant way is hopeless, but that is nearly the case.
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It seems like the degree sign (Celcius) didn't pass. I meant 3C and 2C. A single Celcius makes a huge difference.
Since developed countries created much of the current CO2, they must lead the effort. But as long as we pollute more per capita than poorer countries, we can't really blame them for not doing enough.
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Also remember that if China and India start consuming at the rate that the median American does, global warming and climate change will go through the roof.
That is bollocks. Consume is not causing climate change. CO2 does.
It is easy to produce more consumables with out using more energy.
It is also easy to produce more energy without producing CO2.
Just because you still use the wrong form of energy production and a strange way of consuming (in the US) it does not mean that the rest of the world, especially
Numbers (Score:2)
China Population (2013): 1.357 billion [google.com]
U.S. Population (2014): 318.9 million [google.com]
Head count over a billion more than U.S. Hmm. My question is why is the exceeding number so small!? I know it's still overall developing and all that, but still.
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You're examining a derived figure for a restricted activity and comparing it as an indicator of economic welfare. Smart phones are luxury items with restricted distribution based on service. That is before the element of the restricted app market itself. The best app is for geolocated weather forecasts that farmers can use.
I bow. You have a good point there.
Oh, and no pun intended. :)
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US GDP is higher though.
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China's GDP is about 2/3rds that of the U.S. So yes it is a bit surprising that iOS app store revenue is greater for China than for the U.S. My guess would be the later introduction of the iPhone and iPad into China means people there are still in the "stocking up on apps they want" stage, while Americans left that phase 4-5 years ago.
I've been educated. Thanks. Embarrassing.
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They don't want a local brand. They don't want average MS or a low cost EU brand that positioned with ads to be sold in bulk to the working poor to make up profits.
Some luxury devices are still allowed others attract unwanted questions and can be reported. That expensive foreign car might imply an extra cash flow and might not be worth been
Quite the relief. (Score:2)
Finally, China has surpassed the US at something and I'm not ashamed to at admit it! ;)
Less PC's, more phones (Score:1)
Chinese are heavier users of smartphones because there are relatively fewer desktop computers there. For whatever reason, perhaps the cost, or space, they use smartphones instead of desktops.
This is Amazing! (Score:1)
I guess this proves that Apple's App Store model really, really works. Because, if you can get the average Chinese person to pay for software, you have done something that pretty much no one else has been able to accomplish!
They have all the money (Score:1)
Just the beginning (Score:1)
China will be overtaking the USA in a lot of things fairly soon - not just silly apps.