China is world’s largest smartphone market, by far. But it’s a black hole for app data.
Here at Wandoujia, China's leading Android app store, we decided to change that. Wandoujia presents the very first edition of The China App Index, highlighting the top new apps and games in the Middle Kingdom.
The top trend for June 2013? Photo-sharing via WeChat sparks viral growth for apps. See how a feature to face-off (or 'PK') with celebrities rocketed the Baidu PhotoWonder app to 1.6 million downloads and an insane 4300% growth rate.
2. Top Trends in June 2013
Photo-sharing via WeChat sparks viral growth.
Smart phone users save money.
Mobile MMOs: The dawn of a new era.
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3. Baidu PhotoWonder and Crazy Pic Puzzle took China by storm in June.
The prime contributor? Photo-sharing to WeChat Moments. WeChat is China’s dominant mobile
messaging app and “Moments” is its SNS feed that shares updates with friends (similar to Path).
Baidu PhotoWonder
(百度魔图)
Monthly downloads: 1.6 million
Growth rate: 4300%
Photo-sharing via WeChat
Sparks Viral Growth
In Baidu PhotoWonder, users went gaga for
uploading a portrait of themselves and then getting
matched against a ‘similar-looking’ Chinese celeb.
It’s a “User vs. Celeb” face-off (or PK, player kill, in
Chinese). The version that’s shared out includes a
QR code so friends can quickly scan and join in
the fun.
Actual results may vary (some users are matched
against monkeys), but fun is guaranteed.
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User pic Celebrity pic
Share to:
Weixin | Sina Weibo | WeChat Moments | Tencent Weibo
4. Developers should create opportunities for users to share
fun and personalized pics to WeChat and Sina Weibo.
Crazy Pic Puzzle
(疯狂猜图)
Monthly downloads: 2 million
Growth rate: 80,000%
In Crazy Pic Puzzle, users see a
picture and have to guess the
corresponding Chinese characters
(it’s actually a Chinese-ified copy of
the app Icomania). When you get it
right, the image is conveniently
packaged for sharing to WeChat.
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Photo-sharing via WeChat
Sparks Viral Growth (con’t)
Share to WeChat
5. Of the top five fastest growing apps, three save money for users.
There’s an app to make cheap calls, one to discover free Wi-Fi, and
another to find group-buying deals.
Discount 800 (折800)
Monthly downloads: 163k
Growth rate: 2000%
Smart Phone Users
Save Money
Among the hundreds of discount apps in the Chinese
Android market, Discount 800 stood out this month.
Discount 800 first attracted attention with a daily 9.9
RMB sale. Now users are staying for its points system
and its notifications of hot deals.
Chinese users LOVE deals, so apps that offer savings
can win a big following.
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9.9 RMB merchandise
everyday
Get free things with
points
6. Of the top five fastest growing apps, three save money for users.
There’s an app to make cheap calls, one to discover free Wi-Fi, and
another to find group-buying deals.
AliCall
(阿⾥里通免费⺴⽹网络电话短信)
Monthly downloads: 1.6 million
Growth rate: 4300%
Smart Phone Users
Save Money
AliCall is a service for making cheap calls. To
attract users, they offer an ‘awesome deal’ of
free calls after midnight.
The catch? Users have to pay for AliCall’s
phone service that makes cheap web or IP
phone calls.
Chinese users are very price-sensitive, so apps
that offer savings really stand out.
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Backup contacts Invite friends,
earn credit
7. In China’s PC era, MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing) games were the first big business. The same is
now happening in mobile.
MMO games have short life cycles, but high in-app purchases. Thus, developers pay roughly 4x more for the download
of an MMO game (about 4 RMB or 0.65 USD) than for most other apps (about 1 RMB or 0.16 USD).
Sefirah (Chinese edition)
(神⽯石传说之亚伦传)
Monthly downloads: 69,000
Mobile MMOs:
The Dawn of a New Era
Sefirah is an import from Korea. This RPG is also #2
on our list of of top new games this month.
Sefirah shows that Chinese have a big appetite for
hardcore “gamer’s games” on mobile: “The heroic
knight Aron Isode must reveal the secrets of the
crystal ore and the mystery behind the sudden death
of the knights.” Yeah, it’s no Angry Birds.
Second, it shows that foreign developers can reach a
big audience in China. Games don’t require a Chinese
Wu Shu story to succeed.
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Choose a character,
battle a monster...
...this familiar formula is
now taking off in mobile too.
16. Ready Steady BangBY ANIMADE
70,000 downloads
in 10 days after being promoted as the design award winner.
Co-branding campaign between ANIMADE and Wandoujia:
• Ready Steady Bang fastest gunner campaign
• Hundreds of users crowdsourced the Chinese translations of “The 31 Ways to Die”
17. China is world’s largest smartphone market, by far. But it’s a black
hole for app data. Mobile research firms use Google Play data,
which works for most of the world, but not for China. Nine out of ten
new smartphones sold in China run Android, but developers are left
in the dark.
Here at Wandoujia, we decided to change that. As an Android app
store with over 170 million users, we decided to shine a light on the
market. We hope it will encourage more foreign developers to come
to China.
Methodology:
• Top new: Launched within the last 60 days.
• Fastest-growing: Highest growth-rate this month, relative to an average of the previous 3 months.
• App data is carefully screened to eliminate ‘zombie downloads’ from unscrupulous sources
• All data is from the Wandoujia App Store, with 170 million+ Android users in China.
About the China App Index
18. The China partner for app developers
Wandoujia’s editorial team is always on the lookout for the best new
apps. That definitely includes apps from foreign developers! In the
past, we’ve partnered with Flipboard, EverNote, and Pocket to do
exclusive launches and promotions in China.
Complete media management
Wandoujia is for more than just apps. Our PC suite makes it
supereasy for users to manage all of their content. That
includes movies, TV shows, music, and e-books too.
The place for mobile gamers
Wandoujia is the easiest way to reach a massive audience of
gamers in China. For developers, our app promotion system
makes it easy to be discovered and our payment SDK makes
it easy to get paid.
Learn more here:
http://www.slideshare.net/WandouLabs/
brandbook-en?from_search=5
About Wandoujia
19. Benefits for Registered Developers:
• Verified developer badge gives developers peace of mind
• Push updates to your Chinese users, quickly and efficiently
• Eligible for campaigns and featured promotions
• Optimized search result ranking
Register today:
www.developer.wandoujia.com/intl
Wandoujia Developer Center
New: English-language submission process!
20. 150,000 downloads
in the first week.
Our China launch with Wandoujia was a big success.
A few short days after we got in contact, we were ready to launch with a nicely
designed campaign that fit with our brand image. Wandoujia has delivered hundreds-
of-thousands of downloads, including some of our highest-quality users in China.“
Case Study: Flipboard in China
When Flipboard came to China in June 2012,
it partnered with Wandoujia on the launch.
-Alvin Tse, Product Director at Flipboard China
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