Thanks to China's huge population, the country has the highest number of smartphone users since 2013, easily outnumbering the combined smartphone sales of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada that year. 

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Similarly, China's feature phone market has dropped dramatically since 2013, as 90 percent of these consumers are switching to entry-level, low-end, and cheap Android smartphones. Android is, by far, the top mobile OS in mainland China, accounting for 70 percent of all smartphone users. iOS comes second at 19 percent. But since there is no Google Play Store in China, there are several hundreds of Android stores that seek to fill that gap, including 360 Mobile Assistant, Tencent, and HiMarket.

Utility apps

Industry analysts are starting to see other app varieties gaining traction in China, most notable of which are basic utility apps. Just take a look at the top app publishers in the world at the moment. Facebook and Google unsurprisingly lead the world's top app publishers, but coming in third place is Chinese utility app maker Cheetah Mobile, which is the creator of Clean Master, an app that intends to remove unwanted junk files from one's smartphone. Clean Master is the sixth most downloaded app in the world after Facebook Messenger, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Skype.

Since Chinese Internet companies are looking to reach the billions of smartphone users outside China, they are trying to achieve that goal using utility apps, like junk file cleaners, battery boosters, and browsers. Aside from being free, their business models are based on advertising, since speed boosters and browsers are the sort of apps being used on a daily basis. It is also easy to use them for collecting data regarding the types of apps installed on one's phone, the websites that one visits, and even the people the user contacts.

Potentials for growth

But entering the saturated Chinese app market is certainly not going to be easy. "Distribution is not simple. If you don't have a powerful brand, and if you don't understand the local landscape, you need local help here," said Yu. It is likely that many foreign developers will go head-to-head with the major players that dominate China's app market, and lose.

But there is still a silver lining to this, as China's major players only tend to focus on the most dominant categories. Those that fall outside the three most common niches-mobile gaming, messaging, and utilities-but at the same time still serve day-to-day essentials have the most potential for growth, especially for foreign firms targeting China. That is because these are emerging markets that have been largely unexplored in China, making it easier for Western app developers to enter the market and fill in the void caused by the absence of these apps.

Content management platforms, for instance, are largely underdeveloped in the Chinese market. There are Tencent News and Sohu News, but these deliver news that have not been curated according to the user's needs. M6's content management platform, Born2Invest, seeks to target finance news readers in China by delivering 80-word summaries curated and aggregated from the world's most trusted news sources. Users also have the option of reading only a certain finance category, thus further narrowing the information that they need. Since the app is going to be translated into 54 languages, including Mandarin, it intends to break more than 150 markets within 24 months of launching.

The Born2Invest app also fulfills China's need for convenience, as readers simply need to swipe left on their screen in order to scroll from one article summary to another. Once the user finds an article of interest, he only needs to click the "Read More" button to access the article from the source site. Its uncluttered user interface and highly innovative business model will also become a key differentiator from existing or potential competitors in the field.

VentureBeat recommends creating apps that come with deep social network integrations with Sina Weibo and China's other top social networks, as these increase chances that it will find the audience that it deserves. After all, apps that enable sharing of audio, video, and images tend to attract substantial downloads.

Indeed, entering the Chinese app market is a challenge on its own, but with more and more consumers willing to pay for premium content in high-quality apps, monetization of apps is more than possible, even for foreign players.

TagsChina's app market, Chinese app, Chinese app market potential, China's app market android, foreign apps in China, Chinese internet companies, Chinese apps store, Clean Master, Skype, Instagram, Born2Invest, WhatsApp