More mobile apps in China have more than 10 million monthly active users in Q1 2017. The number of installed apps and app usage hours both increased compared to a year ago.

70 mobile apps in China each has over 50 million monthly active users in March 2017, an increase of 32% YoY. 157 each has between 10 million and 50 million users with a growth rate of 6.8%.

Monthly time spent on mobile apps totaled 85.57 billion hours in March 2017, up 26.7% from March 2016. Android users’ spent on apps saw faster growth than iPhone users’.

On average, the number of installed mobile apps grows to 17.1 in March 2017 from 15.8 in March 2016.

The younger users spent more time on mobile apps.

In march 2017, mobile users installed an average of 2.5 apps. The younger user group under 25 y-o installed the most, 2.8 apps.

Apple’s App Store is the top mobile app store in China which recorded over 500 million downloads in March 2017, followed by YingYongBao (Tencent’s App Store), Baidu Mobile Assistant, and 360 Mobile Assistant.

Check out the updated e-book “Mobile Trend in China 2017“.

Apple App Store is the top mobile app store by total downloads in China in March 2017 while BAT lead the Android App Store market. And, Tencent owns the top 3 mobile apps.

Top 20 Mobile App Stores in March 2017

Apple’s App Store is the top mobile app store in China which recorded over 500 million downloads in March 2017, followed by YingYongBao (Tencent’s App Store), Baidu Mobile Assistant, and 360 Mobile Assistant.

Top 30 Mobile Apps in China in March 2017

WeChat is the absolute winner in China’s mobile apps market with over 892 million monthly active users, followed by QQ and Tencent Video; all top three are from the Tencent family. The other mobile apps by MAU in the top 10 include iQiyi, Taobao, Baidu, Weibo, Alipay, Youku, and QQ Browser.

70 mobile apps in China each has over 50 million monthly active users in March 2017, an increase of 32% YoY. Read more on mobile app usage here →

Get more details from the updated E-Book – Mobile Trend in China 2017

iPhone has the highest retention rate (18.6%) in Q1 2017, followed by Huawei (13.4%). However, Huawei is the top smartphone brand in China by sales (19.2%) in the first quarter of 2017, followed by OPPO (18.7%).

China Smartphone Retention in Q1 2017

Smartphone Sales in China in Q1 2017

Top Android Smartphones

Top iPhone Models in Q1 2017

Related: E-Book: China Mobile Trends 2017

iOS market share dropped to 26.3% in China’s smartphone market from 29.1% in January 2017 according to a research company Newzoo.

iPhone remains the top smartphone brand in China in February 2017 by the number of monthly active devices (26.3%), followed by Huawei (15.6%), Xiaomi (13.8%), OPPO (13.8%), and Vivo (12.1%). Xiaomi AppStore bypassed Baidu Mobile Assistant to be the third Android App Store in China in Feb 2017.

OPPO and Vivo are the top two smartphone brands in Feb 2017 by sales, primarily driven by offline sales. Xiaomi dropped to the sixth with only 3.3% market share in offline sales and 23% in onlinene sales according a Chinese research company Sino.

• OPPO sold 7 million units offline (13.5 billion yuan), 206 thousand units online (460 million yuan)
• Vivo sold 6.17 million units offline (11.1 billion yuan), 187 thousand units online (464 million yuan)
• Xiaomi sold 1.1 million units offline (1.24 billion yuan), 1,896 thousand units online (2,277 million yuan)

Huawei’s HONOR (1.904 million units; 2.6 bn yuan) and Xiaomi (1.896 mn units; 2.28 bn yuan) are the top two best selling smartphone brands in terms of total online sales.

The top 10 Android app stores by total user coverage in China in December 2016 according to TalkingData are:

1. 360 Mobile Assistant
2. Tencent’s App Store
3. Baidu Mobile Assistant
4. Xiaomi App Store
5. OPPO App Store
6. Xiaomi Games Center
7. Huawei App Store
8. Google Play
9. Vivo Games Store
10. Vivo App Store

In comparison, another research company iiMedia data showed that the top 3 app stores by total number of active users in Q4 2016 were 360 Mobile Assistant (42.4%), Tencent App Store (34.8%), Baidu Mobile Assistant (25.1%), Wandoujia+PP Assistant (21.2%).

China has surpassed the United States as the largest market in the world for iOS App Store revenue earning over $1.7 billion in Q3 2016.

Download E-Book for details: Mobile Trend in China 2017 (CIW Premium members only)

Google launched Android Pay yesterday in Hong Kong to speed through purchases in stores and in apps.

Hongkongers can now use Android Pay at over 5,000 locations in Hong Kong where contactless payments are accepted, including stores such as at 7-Eleven, Circle K, Fortress, Mannings, Maxim’s Cakes, MX, McDonald’s, Pacific Coffee, PARKnSHOP, SmarTone, Watsons, Wellcome and more. Android Pay also stores your gift cards, loyalty cards and special offers right on your phone.

Android Pay works with MasterCard and Visa cards from BEA, DBS, Dah Sing Bank, Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, and Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong.

iOS declined in Urban China, falling to 13.5% of smartphone sales according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Android dropped 1.7 percentage points in the US.

iOS accounted for 13.5% of smartphone sales In Urban China in the three months ending August 2016, the lowest share for iOS since before the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in July 2014 according to Tamsin Timpson, Strategic Insight Director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Asia.

Android accounted for nearly nine out of every ten smartphones sold, with Huawei and Xiaomi remaining the top two brands in the region. Oppo, close on Apple’s heels, accounted for 10.6% of sales, with the Oppo R9 becoming the second best-selling phone in the region at 4%, behind the iPhone 6s at 4.3%.

The top three smartphone brands in September 2016 are Huawei (22%), Vivo (15%), and Oppo (13%) according to Dixintong. Find out more here.

Also read: Top 10 mobile apps by MAUs in Sep 2016

25% of China smartphone users use the iOS operating system in 2016, a slight growth compared to the past year which was 21%.

Although majority of China smartphone users use Android phones, 78% iOS users are loyal to their operating system and only 9% iOS users will select an Android smartphone as their next smartphone. As for Android users, 59% of them will continue using Android phones, which has increased 33% compared to 2015.

Apple iPhone is the most popular brand in China while Huawei becomes the most frequently used Android brand (17%), followed by Xiaomi (13%) and Samsung (8%).

29% users use new iPhone models in 2015 and 28% in 2014 after a 7-months release.

As for different iPhone models, 21% of users use iPhone 5s in 2015, followed by iPhone 4s (19%) and iPhone 6 (15%); in 2016, 21% of users use iPhone 6, followed by iPhone 6s (16%) as well as iPhone 5s (16%).

The most popular smartphone brands in China in 2016 are Apple (25%) and Huawei (17%). Huawei has increased seven percentage points while Apple has decreased 4. Samsung’s share dropped from 17% in 2015 to 8% in 2016.

35% of Chinese users want to buy an iPhone as their next smartphone while 19% of them want to buy an Huawei smartphone.

In terms of different smartphone users, most of Chinese iPhone users still plan to buy an iPhone in the future (77%), Huawei as the second option.

59% Huawei users show loyalty to their current brand, but 17% of them tend to switch to iPhone.

45% Xiaomi users will continue using Xiaomi smartphones; 21% will turn to iPhone and 12% to Huawei.

56% iPhone users are female while 59% Huawei users are male.

The 80s and 90s are drivers of the smartphone market; 37% of iPhone users are the 90s and 36% are the 80s; Huawei users are mainly the 70s (25%), the 80s (30%), and the 90s (25%).

iPhone users in tier 1 and tier 2 cities are more than Huawei users; but, in tier 3, tier 4 and below, Huawei users are more than iPhone users.

Near half of iPhone (42%) and Huawei (44%) users have the income of roughly 2,000 to 5,000 yuan a month.

28% iPhone users are white-collars and 21% are students. Both white-collar employees and students account for 20% of Huawei users.

Top 10 Android brands in 2016 are Huawei, Xiaomi, Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, Meizu, Lenovo, Coolpad, Le smartphone, and Gionee.

In tier 4 and below, Oppo users account for 45% and Vivo 47%.

The 90s are the major users of Oppo and Vivo; 46% of the respondent 90s are Oppo users and 59% Vivo users.

23% Chinese users plan to buy an Oppo smartphone as their next Android smartphone brand, followed by Xiaomi (19%) and Huawei (12%).

58% Oppo users and 56% Vivo users are female, which show that Oppo and Vivo smartphones are more popular for females.

47% students use Vivo and 45% use Oppo.

Paid games ratio of mobile role play games and chess games are higher than card and action games in China in 2016 according to TalkingData.

Chess games earned the most DAU/MAU on both iOS operating systems and Android operating systems.

In terms of average weekly active rate, strategy games had the highest average weekly rate of 9.74% by Android operating system users, followed by leisure games (9.29%) and simulation games (8.89%); on iOS, chess games had the highest average weekly active rate of 10.16%, followed by leisure games (9.42%) and puzzle games (9.27%).

In terms of average monthly active users rate, action games had the highest with average monthly active rate of16.93% on Android operating systems while chess games enjoyed the highest on iOS operating systems.

The average one-day player active rate of card games was the lowest (43.37%) on Android operating systems while that of action games was the highest (53.21%). On iOS operating systems, the puzzle games had the lowest one-day player active rate of 36.94% while that of role play games was the highest (49.72%).

The highest next-day retention rate of mobile games on Android operating systems was card games (27.88%) while on iOS systems it was action games (36.21%).

China’s Chess games remained the highest on 7-day retention rate on both Android operating systems (9.55%) and iOS operating systems (12.38%).

Chinese users played strategy games the most, about 4.91 times a day on average on Android operating systems and 5.53 times a day on average on iOS operating systems.

Android operating system users played role play games for 640 seconds a day on average; and, iOS operating system users played strategy games for 1079 seconds a day on average. Both the two mobile games had more average usage seconds among other mobile games.

In 2012, mobile accounted for just 5.4% of all gaming in China. Last year, it accounted for a whopping 36.6%, if you include the export value (as DataEye does) according to Lisa Hanson, a contributor who covers PC, console and mobile games industry in Asia.

The third-party mobile app stores had 444 million active usrs as of Q1 2016, led by Qihoo 360’s 360 Mobile Assistant (42.6%), Tencent’s Myapp (34.6%) and Baidu Mobile Assistant (25.5%).

Baidu Mobile Assistant partnered with Apple to promote Apple Music for Android smartphones in January 2016. In the same month, 360 Mobile Assistant launched its TVC endorsed by TFBOYS, a teenage Chinese boy band. Tencent also held a party of its Myapp app store in Beijing.

The total number of active users reached 444 million in Q1 2016 according to iiMedia Research.

360 Mobile Assistant, owned by Qihoo 360, led Android app stores market in China in Q1 2016 based on iiMedia Research data.

Among Android app stores owned by smartphone brands, Xiaomi App Store owned the 25.6% active users, followed by Huawei Ap Store and Meizu Flyme.

Also read: 95 out of 100 Chinese own a mobile phone in 2015

Penguin Intelligence, part of Tencent, recently conducted a survey on iPhone losing users in China.

Over one-third of China smartphone users would replace smartphones for new ones at least once a year; over three-quarters of Chinese would do so every two years according to the survey.

If an iPhone user is to replace his phone with an Android phone, Huawei is the top choice.

iOS operating system is the most addictive feature of iPhone.

Nearly half of iPhone users are a bit worried that iPhone will be surpassed by Android phones.

Post-90s generation in China relies more on performance data and professional reviews while choosing a smartphone, compared with post-70s and post-90s.

China mobile gaming market rose to US$6.5 billion in 2015 according to Newzoo. China’s overall mobile gaming market declined in active ratio in 2015 according to TalkingData. Mobile chess games were popular among China mobile players in 2015.

Paid games rate of mobile role play games, action, and strategy games were higher than leisure games and card games in 2015. Mobile role play games, action, and strategy games have gradually captured more market in China.

China’s mobile RPG (role play game), FPS (first person shooting), MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena), SLG (simulation game), and card games which increased in a large amount in 2015 made the user retention rate increase and one-day user rate decline.

Some large companies such as Tencent began to develop the vertical market of mobile games in 2015. Although many players spent more time on some games, the overall usage seconds declined in 2015.

China’s overall mobile gaming market declined in active rate in 2015. Companies tended to transform to content-oriented APRU (average revenue per user) games.

Paid game ratio of role play games was the highest in December 2015. Pay game rate declined slightly overall while the rate of action games and role play games increased by about 4% in December 2015 compared to the previous month.

The weekly average active rate on the iOS operating system was higher than the Android and it increased by 39.5% compared to the previous month in December 2015. The weekly average active rate on Android system increased by 4.9% compared to the previous month.

The monthly active rate of puzzle games was the highest in Android smartphone players and monthly active rate of leisure games was the highest in iOS mobile players in December 2015. The monthly active rate increased by 9.4% month-on-month on iOS system and 0.3% month-on-month on Android system.

Mobile chess games had the lowest one-day player rate on average in December 2015. Chess games have traditionally been popular among users in different ages and careers. One-day play rate decreased slightly in December 2015.

Next-day retention rate rose by 11.8% month-on-month on Android system in last December. Mobile chess games had the highest next-day retention rate which might be influenced by the characteristics of chess games.

Seven-day retention rate increased 19.5% on iOS system in December 2015. Mobile chess games had the highest 7-day retention rate.

Mobile players on iOS system were more addicted to mobile games in December 2015. Many mobile games increased in usage seconds and usage times in December 2015, among which role play games, action games, and chess games maintained a large growth extent.

Mobile players in iOS system spent more time on games than Android players in December 2015. Mobile Android players spent an average of 598 seconds on role play games and iOS players spent an average of 1,080 seconds on strategy games in December 2015.

Global mobile gaming market reached more than US$30 billion in 2015 according to Newzoo, a Dutch research institute. China mobile gaming market rose to US$6.5 billion (equivalent to the entire North American market revenue) with an increase of to 46.5% YoY in 2015 being the world’s largest market. China online gaming market was expected to reach $22.2 billion in 2015 according to TalkingData.

Also read: China’s Mobile Internet Insights Q1-Q3 2015

Transaction volume of China’s smartphone market rises to 470 million units in 2015 from 120 million in 2011 and is expected to reach about 470 million in 2016 which tends to saturate according to Sino-mr.

The YoY growth rate of smartphone shipment in China in 2015 is expected to increase by only 1.2% compared with last year’s 19.7% according to IDC while China will remain the world’s largest smartphone market in terms of shipment volume.

Smartphones with over 2,000 yuan (US$310.59) increase this year while handsets under one thousand yuan (US$155.30) have still dominated the market. Smartphone penetration rate in China will reach 38.6% in 2015 according to eMarketer.

Huawei, Apple and Xiaomi lead China’s smartphone market, followed by Samsung, Oppo and Vivo. Apart from Apple and Samsung, the other top ten smartphone brands are China’s local brands.

Android system in China’s smartphone market is expected to account for 81.36%, followed by iOS (11.00%), YunOS (7.10%), Windows (0.43%), Symbian (0.06%), Blackberry (0.01%) and Bada (0.01%).

Also read: 1/4 China Smartphone Users Install Foreign Apps

Mobile apps have covered all aspects of our life, including social communication, life services, information and entertainment and other. By 2015 Q3, 3.1 million smartphones have installed foreign applications according to TalkingData, accounting for about one-quarter of the overall mobile internet users.

Tool apps apply the maximum number of foreign apps (31.0%), followed by social communication (15.5%), travel (11.3%) and photography (10.1%). Social communication apps have a variety of forms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Line and the like.

Users of different mobile operating systems tend to prefer different kinds of foreign apps in China. iOS users love games, video, online shopping, music and radio apps; and Android users are more likely to watch videos, play games, take photos and use map or navigation apps. Usage of education and finance apps by Android users is also higher than the iOS users.

In general, handsets of foreign app users are relatively advanced. Although iPhones 6S was released in Chinese market in late September, 12.0% of iOS users have updated to this model; the proportion of iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 users account for more than 68% of all iOS users. Samsung’s eight smartphone models were in the top ten Android smartphonesi.

The most popular foreign apps on Android in China are Flipboard, Uber, Google Pinyin, Google Maps, Google Search, Google+, Gmail, Google Browser, Hangouts and YouTube. Google owns 70% of the ten most popular foreign mobile apps.

Top ten popular foreign apps on iPhones in China are Facebook, E-Reminder, Uber, YouTube, Amazon, Instagram, WhatsApp Messenger, Skype, KFC and Google Browser.

Users of Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are concentrated in Taiwan and Hong Kong; more users in north China and first-tier city use Flipboard, Evernote, Airbnb, Uber and other foreign apps. The largest userbase of Uber is in Chengdu.

Also read: Xiaomi App Store: 20 Billion App Downloads in H1 2015

About 2/3 Apple users upgraded to iOS8 in Q1 2015 according to Tencent’s data covering 1.7 billion devices.

This is largely due to pre-installed iOS8 on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and new iPad which were hot-selling smartphones in China. In addition, new features such as Apple Pay and personal health monitoring motivated users to upgrade to iOS8.

Also read: Xiaomi Beat Samsung As Top Smartphone Vendor in 2014

Over 70% China tablet users use tablets on a daily basis for an average 1.9 hours per day according to a Tencent research.

Home, public place, and train station and airport are the top three places for tablet usage in China.

Near 40% tablet users average usage is more than 4 hours. Most tablet usage in China was in the evening at home.

Near 50% share tablet with family; and tablet sharing is more common with iPad in China than Android powered tablets.

Read more here.

In the first half of 2014, China gaming market users exceeded 400 million with an increase of 9.5% year on year. The total sales value of China gaming market was RMB49.62 billion (US$8.07 billion) with an increase of 46.4% YoY according to CPC & CNG. ZDC‘s latest data also shows on average an iOS game player spend as much as 3 times more than an Android player in 2014.

Total sales value of China client gaming, browser gaming, mobile gaming, social gaming, and single-player gaming were RMB25.57 billion(US$4.16 billion), RMB9.18 billion (US$1.49 billion), RMB12.52 billion (US$2.03 billion), RMB 2.34 billion (US$380.9 million) and RMB10 million (US$1.62 million) respectively.

From January to November in 2014, market share of mobile gaming increased continuously while market share of client gaming is decreasing. As of middle November, client gaming market market share decreased to 53.3% and mobile gaming increased to 33%. However, client gaming still dominated China gaming market in 2014.

2014 is a booming year for China mobile gaming market. According to Nielsen’s research, 47% mobile gaming users play games everyday and 88% of them log in gaming platform for many times per day. China mobile gaming users increased by 62.3% from 2013. As of November 2014, the number of mobile gaming users was 504 million with an increase of 193.5 million. Besides, game usage increased to 62.3% from 2013.

As of 2014, total sales value of China mobile gaming market will exceed RMB20 billion with an increase of 149.4% year on year. It is estimated that total sales value will be RMB35 billion in 2015.

In 2014, there are 500 million mobile gaming users in China which indicates mobile gaming has been one of indispensable entertainment for Chinese. Casual and social games are favored by users in China.

In 2014, 77.4% mobile gaming users use Android OS and only 13.7% of them use iOS to play games according to data of ZDC. However, iOS game users are more willing to pay for entertainment apps, as much as 3 times more than Android game players. Considering large number of Android game users in China, there is great potential in China Android game market.

The peak time for games payment were about 11 a.m-12 p.m and 9 p.m to 10 p.m according to data of 7881.com (a famous game trading platform in China); to strengthen service during peak time may raise users’ second payment possibilities.

61% respondents made Alipay as their first choice to top up game accounts according to the survey of 7881.com. 16% of them pay mobile phone charge for games. Related: China Third Party Online Payment Market in Q3 2014

As of September 30 2014, the top 3 provinces in China by total number of mobile gaming users were Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. 60% China mobile gaming users are from tier-3 cities in 2014 which indicates there are great demand for users in tier-3 cities and more opportunities China mobile gaming market in tier-3 cities and lower ones in the future.

Also read: China Browser Games for Children Market to Exceed 2 Bln Yuan in 2016

In Q3 2014, top 3 China Android app stores were 360 mobile assistant, Myapp(Tencent) and Baidu mobile assistant.

Having risen from the 8th to the 6th in the previous quarter, MIUI app store (Xiaomi) growth shows no signs of slowing down as it rised to the 5th, closing in on Google Play – their smart phone activation growing from 11% in Q2 to 12% in Q3. This steady climb is in line with previous estimates, with much of the companies’ gain attributed to its increased smart phone sales across China.

Wandoujia dropped one place to the 6th, their total smart phone reach dropping to 10% compared to 11% in Q2 2014. At the bottom of the ranks Anzhi Market has increased their coverage to 7% (compared to 6% Q2) while Oppo Store outrank the CMCC Mobile Application Market with a total smart phone coverage of 5%.

GunZ Dash ranked top among China Android mobile games. Tencent dominated China mobile game market with 7 of top 10 mobile games were published by Tencent; and 3 of them were in top 5 in Q3 2014.

Also read: China Mobile App Distribution Channels Market Share