About 64,000 mainland Chinese travelers went to UK in the second quarter of 2015, according to the Office for National Statistics in the United Kingdom.

UK has made much effort to attract Chinese tourists and Chinese tourists to Britain grew by 33% YoY in Q2 2015. However, although RMB appreciated against GBP, Chinese tourists spending in UK fell by 6% to 151 million pounds (about 1.48 billion yuan).

Chinese outbound visitors are expected to exceed more than 120 million this year. The top five outbound destinations for Chinese tourists all are Asian countries and regions. France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany are among the top ten travel destinations for Chinese.

UK received 7.4 million tourists from mainland Europe in Q2 2015, 1 million from the United States and 152,000 from India.

Also read: China Hotel Search Behavior Overview 2015

Despite the continuous weak growth and even decline in smartphone sales in China, major domestic mobile phone manufacturers still set a “big leap” of shipping target in H1 2015. Although foreign brands iPhone and Samsung still held a large market share, domestic brands as Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi and TCL etc. all set their phone sales volume at 100 million units.

In Q2 2015, Xiaomi was the top smartphone vendor in China by total shipments volume of 15.9%, followed by Huawei (15.7%). Apple ranked third, followed by Samsung and Vivo.

China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, the three Chinese telecommunications companies accounted for 90% of the market.

4G network penetrated quickly into Chinese people’s life while users accessing to the internet through Wi-Fi accounted for 52%, mainly because of the high data charges of 4G network.

25% China mobile internet users on average opened less than 5 apps per day while over 60% would use less than 10 apps. Only 2.9% users would open more than 20 apps in one day. Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu still led China’s mobile internet market.

Among the top 20 mobile apps by total number of monthly average users, seven apps were from by Tencent. And among all the mobile apps in China in July 2015, WeChat and QQ ranked first with the monthly average users of 556.48 million and 424.28 million respectively.

WeChat and QQ were the social communication platforms with the highest penetration rate. Among the usage of the top 20 apps, users spent about 27% of the total apps usage time on WeChat and QQ. Search engine, video, and music player apps were also popular among mobile internet users.

Tencent held a strong position in the mobile social platform. Mobile internet users spent more time on WeChat compared with QQ; however among the post-00s, QQ was the major communication tool.

In the mobile video player market, Tencent, iQIYI and Youku led the market, with fierce competition and little gap of MAU (monthly active users) and total usage.

In the mobile music player market, Kugou music undoubtedly took the lead, followed by QQ Music and Kuwo Music.

Tencent News enjoyed a large share in China’s news apps market while Toutiao was in the process of fast penetration. Toutiao and Tencent News were quite close in total usage time. The daily usage of Toutiao was even twice that of Tencent News .

Offers from China online travel providers such as Ctrip and Qunar have extended to provide more on “things to do” in travel destinations. China online travel providers have also expanded to provide lifestyle offers such as food delivery, movie ticketing and car renting. In H1 2015, Ctrip and Qunar continued the growth momentum, which contributed to the tourism market of China.

Resulting from the convenience of online banking and online payment, mobile online banking apps developed quickly. China Construction Bank ranked first with monthly average usage of 2.32%.

China became the largest e-commerce market since 2014. About 53% users were women in 2015. Taobao held an unaltered position in the online e-commerce market, followed by JD and Vipshop.

In the mother care market, Beibei ranked first with an overwhelming advantage, whose monthly average usage was more the sum of other four apps.

Competition was fierce in the  cross-border hopping market, and Red ranked first in H1 2015 with a market share of 0.19%.

Meituan still ranked top on the group-buying apps in H1 2015, followed by Dianping and Nuomi while Ele continued to compete and was expected to be competitive to Meituan in the monthly average usage.

Meituan and Ele dominate the food delivery market. Ele led the market in Beijing and Shanghai while Meituan held an obvious advantage in other cities. Beijing made up of nearly 10% of the total food delivery share.

Car calling market was basically shared by Didi, Kuaidi and Uber. Although Uber China made much effort in the localization of Uber, the number of daily average users was only one third that of Didi Cars/Kuaidi One.

WeChat payment has gradually been adopted by more users. Many apps supported payments by WeChat. Didi and Meituan were first two apps that used WeChat payment as the primary payment method.

Also read: China Top 100 Mobile Apps in July 2015

In Q2 2015, China’s online shopping market reached 872.54 billion yuan (US$136.77 billion), with a high level increase of 39.6%, which accounted for 12.3% of total retail value compared with 10% in 2014.

The transaction value of mobile shopping market exceeded 443.45 billion yuan (US$69.51 billion), an increase of 133.5% far higher than the overall growth of the online shopping market, which has become the main driving force for the rapid development of online shopping market in China.

The transaction value of B2C market reached 442.13 billion yuan (US$69.31 billion) in Q2 2015, accounting for 50.7% of the overall online shopping value, 6.2 percentage points higher compared with Q2 2014. B2C market has been growing rapidly, this quarter China’s B2C online shopping market grew by 59.1%, much higher than C2C (24%). B2C has exceeded C2C to become the mainstream of China’s online shopping market.

From the use of different internet access devices, mobile shopping transaction value surpassed the PC-end turnover for the first time accounting for 50.8% of China’s online shopping market, an increase of 20 percentage points compared with the same period last year. In the future, mobile-end shopping would become major driving force of online shopping in China.

Tmall accounted for 55.6% of the total B2C online shopping market; Jingdong 25.2%, and the others totalled about 20% in Q2 2015.

Alibaba’s mobile apps, such as Taobao and Tmall, made up 83.7% of China’s mobile shopping market share; Jingdong increased to 6.1%; and Vipshop ranked third with share of 2.5%.

Also read: China’s Mobile Market Analysis in Q2 2015

According to the least data released by China Central Bank, e-payment business kept rapid development and mobile payment experienced great increase in Q2 2015 in China . The total value of mobile payment reached $4.19 trillion with an increase of 445.14% from the same period last year.

In Q2 2015, banks in China had 24.976 billion e-payment transaction volume, which valued $92.99 trillion. Online payment had 10.398 billion transaction volume which valued $72.66 trillion with an increase of 44.57% YoY, while phone payment transaction volume reached $0.477 trillion with an increase of 191.78% YoY in Q2 2015.

In Q2 2015, non-bank agencies had online payment transaction volume of 20.66 billion, valued at $1.73 trillion with an increase of 107.75% YoY.。

Electronic Commercial Draft System had rapid development in Q2 2015. The commercial draft business had transaction volume 305.7 thousand which valued $227.8 billion with an increase of 102.93%.

Bill business had dropped a lot in Q2 2015. The total transaction volume was 104 million valuing $9.31 trillion with a decrease of 11.7% YoY.

Also read: China Offline Mobile Payment Insights in 2015

The penetration ratio of iOS8 reached 76% in China in Q2 2015; and as of August 2015, only 19.4% subscribers still used the iOS7 system. The popularization of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus promoted the adoption of iOS8, and the free system upgrade feature improved iPhone user base in China. When issued in September 2015, iOS9 might replace iOS8 and gain more market share.

Smartphones with large screens were most welcomed in China. Screens with 1280*920 were best-sellers in the market, as Xiaomi Note, Huawei Glory, iPhone 6Plus.

Smartphones market in China faced a fierce competition in the past several months. Xiaomi and Huawei chased iPhone out of the largest smartphone vendor in China by shipments in Q2 2015, and China’s 360 and Letv released smart handsets, driven by the success of some domestic brands. Samsung, the Korea-based brand, was gradually losing its market share in China.

In Q2 2015, the penetration rate of 4G networks reached 20.1% up of over 200 million, 14.8 percentage points higher compared with Q1 2015.

China Mobile composed of 53.4% of China’s mobile network market share, followed by China Unicom (25.27%) and China Telecom (21.3%). 86.6% of 4G network users accessed to the internet through China Mobile, which maintained prominence and expertise compared with China Telecom and China Unicom (11.31% in total).

Compared with Q2 2014, life service, shopping and health apps increased in a large amount. Took mobile shopping apps as example, overseas shopping, mother care, group buying and etc. apps increased obviously.

Mobile gaming apps also increased in a large amount compared with the same period last year. Leisure and mind gaming apps maintained a growth trend of over 40%, followed by network gaming apps and role play apps.

Guangdong province had 12.75% of mobile gaming users in China, followed by Jiangsu province (6.58%) and Henan province (6.26%). Regions in eastern of southern part of China had more mobile gaming users.

More entrepreneurs devoted themselves to the exploration of mobile internet. Beijing, the capital city of China, had a unique advantage and attracted entrepreneurs with its robust internet atmosphere. Other regions, for example, the Yangtze River Delta, also attracted many internet entrepreneurs.

Men and women had nearly total different preference towards mobile apps. Men preferred apps for entertainment, navigation, social communication, reading and etc. while women preferred shopping, healthy, photography, education apps and etc.

Users above 20 years old preferred to play chess and card games, and 5 to 12 years old were the most likely to play sport and adventure games. Users of 13 to 18 years old comprised of the majority of mobile gaming apps users in each kind of mobile apps.

61% mobile apps were downloaded in leisure time, and 44% of which were mobile gaming apps. In non-leisure time, 39% were downloaded, and 63% of those were non gaming apps.

Also read: China Top 100 Mobile Apps in July 2015

China’s top 4 B2C websites, JD, Jumei, Dangdang and Vipshop announced financial reports in Q2 2015, JD further inproved its business scale while suffering from greater losses. Jingdong lost over 1.8 billion yuan in the past year.

JD in Q2 2015 gained a revenue of 45.9 billion yuan (about US$7.4 billion), an increase of 61% year-over-year, mainly due to the increase of active users and orders; Vipshop totaled a net revenue of 9 billion (US$1.5 billion), 77.6% increase compared with 5.1 billion in the previous year; Jumei got a revenue of 1.963 billion yuan (US$308.1 million), 100% growth compared with US$154.4 million the same period last year; and Dangdang got a revenue of 2.312 billion yuan (US$373 million), a YoY increase of 29.8%, which was the slowest among the four companies.

Also read: China Mobile Shopping Market Value Exceeds RMB36 Bln in Q1 2015

Qihoo reported revenues of US$438.3 million in Q2 2015, an increase of 37.9% from U$317.9 million in the second quarter of 2014 and 14.0% from US$384.4 million in the first quarter of 2015. Net income attributable to Qihoo 360 was US$81.4 million, compared to US$39.1 million in the second quarter of 2014 and US$53.0 million in the prior quarter. The strong year-over-year growth was due to the continued solid performance in Qihoo’s online advertising.

Operating income of Qihoo was US$81.1 million, compared to US$43.9 million in the second quarter of 2014 and US$75.9 million in the prior quarter. Non-GAAP operating income was US$108.9 million, compared to US$69.7 million in the second quarter of 2014 and US$96.5 million in the prior quarter. Total monthly active users of Qihoo 360’s PC-based products and services reached 514 million in June 2015, compared to 496 million in June 2014, among which the number of monthly active users of Qihoo 360’s PC browsers was 388 million with user penetration of 73.0%.

In this Quarter, Qihoo launched 360 Auto Guard (automobile data recorder) and a new generation of 360 Kids Guard, which were well received by users. Total smartphone users of Qihoo 360’s primary mobile security product reached a record high of 799 million in June 2015, compared to 641 million in June 2014. Qihoo was expected to expand its services and brand influence from online to offline and from virtual to real settings through the marketing of smart hardware and smartphones which started to take pre-orders on September 1, 2015.

Qihoo’s Second Quarter 2015 Highlights

• Revenues were US$438.3 million, a 37.9% increase from US$317.9 million in the second quarter of 2014.
• Net income attributable to Qihoo 360 was US$81.4 million, compared to US$39.1 million in the second quarter of 2014.
• Net cash generated from operations in the second quarter of 2015 was US$128.8 million.
• Total monthly active users of Qihoo 360’s PC-based products and services reached 514 million in June 2015.
• Monthly active users of Qihoo 360’s PC browsers was 388 million and user penetration was 73.0% in June 2015.
• Total smartphone users of Qihoo 360’s primary mobile security product reached 799 million in June 2015.

Also read: China Top Smartphone Brands in H1 2015

Weibo reported net revenues of US$107.8 million in Q2 2015, compared to US$77.3 million for the same period last year. Advertising and marketing revenues for the second quarter of 2015 totalled US$87.9 million, compared to US$59.6 million for the same period last year.

Income from operations for the second quarter of 2015 was US$2.3 million, compared to a loss from operations of US$10.7 million for the same period last year. Non-GAAP income from operations for the second quarter of 2015 was US$9.7 million, compared to a non-GAAP loss from operations of US$7.0 million for the same period last year.

Weibo’s MAU growth continues to be robust, reaching 212 million in June, as Weibo sought to improve user experience, increase penetration into lower tiered cities and expand their partnerships with the television and movie industries. More advertisers adopted Weibo social advertising, especially in the SME segment, where Weibo revenues grew 163% year over year and the number of customers reached 443,000 in the second quarter of 2015.

Sina’s Second Quarter 2015 Highlights

• Net revenues increased 39% year over year to US$107.8 million
• Advertising and marketing revenues increased 47% year over year to US$87.9 million.
• Weibo Value Added Services (“Weibo VAS”) revenues increased 13% year over year to US$20.0 million.
• Net income attributable to Weibo’s ordinary shareholders was US$4.2 million, or US$0.02 diluted net income per share, compared to a net loss of US$15.5 million for the same period last year, or diluted net loss per share of US$0.08.
• Monthly active users (“MAUs”) were 212 million for June 2015, up 36% year over year. Mobile MAUs represented 85% of total MAUs in June 2015. Daily active users (“DAUs”) were 93 million on average for June 2015, up 34% year over year.

Also read: WeChat MAUs Reached 600 Million in Q2 2015

In Q2 2015, China’s online accommodations booking market reached 19.52 billion yuan (US$3.09 billion), with an increase of 15.9% QoQ and 63.5% YoY.

Also read: China Online Vacation Market in Q1 2015