In brief
Google missed mainland China’s growing app opportunity because its Play Store was unavailable there. A review of 2017 reported that mainland Chinese consumers’ smartphone app spending had risen by 270% over two years, benefiting Apple, Tencent and Baidu. The Information reported that Google intended to work with NetEase to relaunch a regulated Play Store.
An app data analytics platform released its review of the app economy in 2017. The report found that over the past two years, mainland Chinese consumers’ smartphone app spending surged by 270%, benefiting Apple, Tencent and Baidu. Google, however, missed this opportunity to profit because it had no Play Store in China.
Google (Goog-US) shut down its Chinese web search service in 2010 over censorship issues, while several of its services were also blocked by the Chinese government. The company had spent years trying to relaunch its Google Play app store in China, but all its efforts had been unsuccessful.
Google’s absence from China meant that most of the business opportunities created by apps went to Apple, Tencent and Baidu, costing Google billions of US dollars in potential revenue. According to an exclusive report by news outlet The Information, Google intended to work with NetEase, Inc. to relaunch a regulated version of the Play Store。
Globally, smartphone users downloaded more than 175 billion apps in 2017, an increase of 60% over two years earlier, and total spending exceeded US$86 billion. The time users spent on apps was striking: on average, each person spent 1.5 months a year using apps.
India was the country whose users used the largest number of apps, while users in China had the most apps installed on their phones on average.
