China has overtaken the United States for the first time to dominate a new list of the Top 52 app publishers around the globe, with 17 domestic companies earning places on the annual Top 52 Publishers list of data.ai, a U.S.-based mobile analytics company. Jeffery Zheng, Regional Director for data.ai Greater China, highlighted the considerable progress made by Chinese app publishers over the past year, saying China has become the world’s most developed mobile market and Chinese mobile publishers will continue to lead in the future. Zheng said he is upbeat about Chinese mobile publishers’ performance in overseas markets going forward, in part driven by their capabilities in technological innovation.
China’s top gaming and social media operator Tencent Holdings and Chinese leading gaming firm NetEase have retained the top two spots in data.ai’s 2022 Top 52 Publishers list for the fifth consecutive year. U.S.-based gaming powerhouse Activision Blizzard jumped one position to No 3. Chinese app publishers such as ByteDance, miHoYo, Lilith, Fun-Plus, Alibaba Group and Baidu also made the list. Noticeably, publishers headquartered in the Asia-Pacific dominated the list, making up 63.5% of the Top 52. According to data.ai, while gaming companies have made great strides overseas, various non-game Chinese companies are also seeking to expand their global presence. ByteDance earned top spot on another data.ai list — the Top 30 non-game Chinese publishers by revenue in overseas markets.
Data.ai's top 10 worldwide mobile publishers are Tencent (China); NetEase (China); Activision Blizzard (U.S.); Playrix (Ireland); Google (U.S.); Zynga (U.S.); ByteDance (China); Playtika (Israel); Match Group (U.S.) and Netmarble (South Korea).
Heading into 2022, data.ai said it has seen consumers spend more time and money than ever before – including nearly one-third of all waking hours – on mobile devices. Chinese developers have nearly doubled their market share in global app downloads over the past 10 years, from 8% in 2011 to 14% by the first half of 2021.
“Over the past decade, Chinese companies have achieved substantial growth in the globalization process by leveraging their technology and talent advantages. As the era of new industrial changes rushes forward, we are well aware of the unprecedented challenges that accompany huge development opportunities,” said Meng Hao, Vice President of mobile application at Google's key account division. Despite challenges ahead, Wei Haijun, Founding Partner at Grand View Capital, said that with the high penetration rate of the mobile internet, extensive demand from global users has created tremendous opportunities for the next generation of Chinese entrepreneurs.
According to a recent joint report by Google, Roland Berger, Grand View Capital and data.ai, smartphone penetration is set to grow by more than 10% from 2020 to 2025, and emerging markets will be the main driver. The report said developed markets such as the U.S. and Western Europe remain strong in terms of consumer app store spending, while emerging markets such as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Mexico are seeing high growth in downloads, which will be worth exploring in the future, the China Daily reports.
As an increasing number of Chinese companies go global, AppsFlyer, an Israeli mobile marketing analytics company, sees big opportunities from helping Chinese companies better resonate with overseas users by fully leveraging mobile marketing analytics technology. Wang Wei, General Manager of AppsFlyer Greater China, said the company has grown a solid customer base in the country. “We have about 70% of the market share in the global marketing analytics segment, and the corresponding figure for the Chinese market is about 80%.” Over half of AppsFlyer’s customers in China are game advertisers, both in terms of quantity and the revenue they bring to the company, he said.
“Gaming enterprises are among the first Chinese companies to explore overseas markets. We noticed their efforts as early as before 2010,” Wang said, adding that they are very stable, whether the economy is good or times are challenging, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Wang, the other half of its customers are Chinese companies that are at the forefront of global trends. “Whether they are fintech or short-video companies, Chinese companies are growing fast,” Wang said.
As Chinese companies expand their overseas influence, some of them are pushing into the competitive platforms of global advertising networks, according to AppsFlyer’s 14th edition of its Performance Index, an industry report that ranks the top media sources in mobile advertising. The report analyzed a total of 610 media sources, 25 billion app installs and over 18,000 apps from July to December 2021. Chinese advertising platforms Bigo Ads, Transsion and Simeji, for instance, have grown rapidly, occupying the top three spots on the global Android growth index, according to the AppsFlyer report.
