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Asia now a growing market for mobile app downloads
27 June 11
Asian countries are becoming increasingly important in terms of app downloads, according to research firm Distimo. This Distimo publication covers the Apple App Store downloads for iPhone for May 2011, and focuses on insights in market trends that are relevant for developers who want to grow their business in Asia.
According to this report, China is now the second largest market in terms of total download volume, after United States.
Other interesting findings include:
- Majority of the most popular iPhone applications in Asia are only popular in
Asia, but in some Asian countries worldwide popular applications prevail. Examples of regional popular only content are KungFu Food-Panda, and Birzzle.
- In general, localization appears to be key to becoming popular especially when considering countries like China, South Korea, and Japan. In countries like India and Indonesia, localization appears to be less important.
- The download volume in South Korea is high despite the relative small
size of the country’s population. Moreover, because the Games category is absent
in the Apple App Store for iPhone in South Korea, all downloads are allocated to
non-Games, while in other countries the Games category is without exception, the
largest. This makes South Korea an especially interesting country for publishers and developers in the non-Games categories.
You can download the full Distimo Report here