Developers around the world are breaking into the Chinese market as they grow their apps and expand their audience. To help developers learn how to grow in this market, Huawei hosted the Grow in China, Win with App Gallery developer webinar. This webinar was streamed online on 11/09/2020 and can be viewed in its entirety below. In this article, we will recap all of the most significant moments from the webinar. 

China’s Flourishing Mobile Internet Sector

In the first section of this webinar, Ilya Fedotov [Head of Global Ecosystem Marketing for Huawei] talked about the growth being seen in China's mobile internet sector. China currently has 940 million internet users, along with 932 million mobile internet users. Android phones account for 83.8% of the Chinese mobile phone market, with iOS phones accounting for about 7.5%.

The chart below shows the average daily phone usage in different countries around the world. China comes in second to Indonesia, with close to four hours of daily usage.

Ilya went on to reference XDA Developers' research which shows that market access and revenue are the main concerns for global developers. These areas are often thought of as difficult issues for developers trying to expand overseas. Huawei's AppGallery is one of the best ways to make a profitable app with the largest audience in China. Huawei phones make up 63% of Chinese 5G smartphones. This places AppGallery at a huge advantage, and a great opportunity for developers to profit from their app.

Special licensing was explained, as well as what types of apps need a special license from the Chinese government. These types of apps include finance, medical, media and entertainment, news, games, and more.

What you Need to Know Before Entering the Chinese Market

In the next segment, Gavin Kinghall Were [Huawei VP, Global Head of BD Solutions] comes on to share what you need to know before entering the Chinese market. He went over the revenue statistics, showing that the revenue from the Chinese mobile games market reached $15.6 billion dollars, between January and June of 2020.

Chinese gamers tend to favor games with great graphics performance, innovative gameplay, and abundant gameplay. Many of these types of statistics were explored, which can greatly help developers understand how Chinese gamers might react to their games.

The session continued to go over all of the advantages of Huawei's HMS Core. He talked about how different kits available to developers can help to create fantastic games that will appeal to the Chinese market. To explore more HMS kits and topics, check out the Huawei Developers XDA forums.

How PicsArt Has Achieved Unlikely Success in China

One of the apps that has found a great deal of success in China is PicsArt, an all-in-one photo editing app for mobile phones. To tell the story of how PicsArt found a large audience overseas and gain over 200 million downloads in China, Jennifer Liu, [PicsArt China, General Manager] presented their experience with Huawei and her insights on user acquisition in China.

When entering into the Chinese market, translation is the first step. Jennifer talked about the importance of choosing a good Chinese name for your app. She also talked about marketing towards Chinese trends. When a user from China opens the PicsArt app, they'll want to see editing filters and effects that are trending in Chinese culture. Preparing your app for China is more than just translating it, you must prepare it for a different culture with different interests.

The graphic above shows the different demographics of Chinese internet users. Understanding this type of information can be essential to your app's success. Leveraging local platforms is the best way to reach your desired demographic. This includes services like Weibo, TikTok, bilibili, and more.

AppGallery's user feedback and insights were extremely helpful in the success of PicsArt. You can also take advantage of AppGallery's comprehensive marketing tools to boost the reach of your app.

Panel Discussion: How to Release Games in China

Gaming is proving to be particularly popular in the Chinese app market, accounting for over 15 billion dollars in the first six months of 2020. They continue to see rapid growth both in China and around the world. The Webinar also invited representatives from famous Chinese game publishers, such as Tecent Games, iDreamSky Technolocy, Jinke Culture Technology and Feiyu Technology. They were able to join the panel discussion on publishing mobile games in China.

[caption align="alignnone" width="900"] Liu Han [Producer of A.C.E. Program Tencent Games][/caption] All of these speakers were able to discuss different ideas and techniques that will help developers that are new to the Chinese market. The webinar ends up being one hour and 15 minutes in length and is a great resource for developers around the world.

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