The biggest app market in the world by user numbers and revenue, China has built an insular app economy unlike any other in the world. Domestic companies control significant market share, with Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei dominating their respective markets.
Around two-thirds of smartphones in China use the Android operating system, with the vast majority on iOS. With Google Play unavailable in China due to disputes over censorship, this market is highly fragmented. There are more than 100 mobile app stores for Android phones, with Huawei and Oppo operating the two most popular.
However, most Chinese smartphone users bypass app stores entirely, by accessing apps through mini-programs on WeChat. Tencent's messaging super-app has over one billion users and is considered the home screen, with users accessing apps such as Pinduoduo, AliPay and iQiyi through the messaging app.
This provides Tencent with a lot of control over how users consume apps, taking a small percentage of any revenue generated through WeChat. Similar to Apple and app stores however, ultimate control over which apps are allowed to operate and how they operate is in the hands of the Chinese government, which enforce strict censorship.
Apple in particular has been accused of succumbing to government pressure on censorship. Following a law introduced in 2017, Apple agreed to move its Chinese customers' data onto computer systems run within China by a state-owned company, without the encryption technology used in other data centres.
While the app market continues to grow in China, it is subject to more invasive government intervention than in many other countries. In August 2023, the Chinese government announced proposals to limit children's screen time with a "minor-mode". This follows a restriction on video game playing time for children introduced in 2021.
We have collected data and statistics on the Chinese mobile app market. Read on below to find out more.
Key China App Market Statistics
- The Chinese app market generated $55.7 billion, an increase on the year prior but below 2021 and 2022 figures
- The average Chinese smartphone user spent $45.9 on apps in 2024
- There were 1.2 billion smartphone users in China, about 86% of the country
- Honor of Kings was the top grossing iOS app in the country, with $1.8 billion in-app spend
- WeChat had the most monthly active users in China, followed by Taobao and AliPay
- Over 100 billion apps were downloaded in China in 2024, a decline of five billion on the previous year
- That comes to about 89 apps installed per user in China
- The Huawei App Store is the most popular in China, with Google Play banned in the country
- The average Chinese internet user spends about five and a half hours per day on it
- Mobile accounted for over 65% of total internet usage in China in 2024
- The average cellular speed in China was 139Mbps in 2024
