3 Important Tips for Developing and Promoting a Mobile App in China

Do you want to capture the Chinese market with your mobile app? Well, that’s a great idea because Chinese market is extremely welcoming and proliferative. Moreover they are extremely internet and smartphone savvy. You can make a huge profit by entering the Chinese industry. But first you should understand the market because it is quite different than the markets you might have come across so far. Here are a few useful tips.

1. Focus on Locals

You might have listened to Chinese people in Hong Kong or major Chinese cities speaking excellent English. However, barring these limited number of Chinese people, the rest of the great Chinese population that lives outside the big coastal cities is not proficient in English. And even if some people are proficient, they only prefer to make purchases from websites that are in Chinese.

However, merely translating a mobile app in China in English word for word and expecting that it will meet the requirements of Chinese consumers is not a good idea. You will have to focus on locals and their culture. For example, writing dates in Chinese starts with the year, then month and then the day. Chinese names are written first with family name and then the individual’s name. You should take such basic local things into consideration when you design an app for the Chinese market.

There are some more points to consider.

For instance, Chinese youth is fond of using Internet slang. Here’s an interesting example. An ad featured Jackie Chan saying “Duang”. This word became extremely popular though such a combination of sounds doesn’t exist in Chinese language. Chinese netizens even built a new character for the word integrating family name and individual name of Jackie Chan into one, and this word instantly became widespread among news headlines, commercials and numerous online discussions!

To understand such undercurrents in the Chinese culture, a Chinese partner can help you with updates and latest jargon to help you resonate with your target audience.

2. Let Your App be Designed for China

Just making your app in Chinese will not the serve the entire purpose. The app itself should be Chinese too. Chinese internet users are quite comfortable with something that non-Chinese might call chaos. A single web page can include hundreds of links. To add to that, Chinese web pages are usually packed with movement. For example, upon opening a Chinese website, you may be hit by a large ad from the top that may go on for around 4-5 seconds. After it withdraws, you will be bombarded by continuously changing photos on a photo slider with texts scrolling alongside and advertisements may keep flashing on sides. What an American or other users in the world might find irritating is quite normal for Chinese users.

Apps and websites are developed even more differently in hidden ways. There is a tendency among Chinese web designers to use blank links, i.e. links that open in a new browser tab, more often than non-Chinese designers have.

3. Launch on Android

Chinese people love iPhone a lot. Chinese netizens have even labeled iPhone as “kidney” in context of a person who sold his kidney to purchase an iPhone. Nevertheless, since much of the growth of smartphone market is because of the less affluent population in smaller cities, cheaper Android-based alternatives are gaining growth. Local smartphone brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo and Oppo all are doing extremely well throughout China.

Around 70% of Chinese gamers playing on mobile devices use Android devices.

Having said that, it’s also important to remember that average iPhone users tend to spend more on apps than Android users.

Consider all these points when you are planning to develop a mobile app in China and your mission will certainly be successful.