There are considerable challenges in achieving success in the mobile apps market. Those have to do with launching and promoting an app in the right store, figuring out monetization model that works and is sustainable, overcoming China-specific technical challenges and, finally, making sure that your product is not easily copied by a competitor.

Here is the list of 10 most important factors to consider before venturing into China’s mobile apps market:

The right mobile OS

Thanks to the low cost of entry level smartphones in China, two out of three users are on Android system which makes it the one to target first. iOS still represents about one third of the total market but Android will certainly continue to dominate China in the near future. Windows phones didn’t get much traction in China yet, while Blackberry and Nokia’s Symbian systems being even less relevant.

Fragmentation of Android apps market

There are literally hundreds of Android mobile stores, each focusing on a specific niche, demographics or geographic region. Understanding complex Android ecosystem is crucial to launching your app in the right store. Simply applying to all or most of them is not an option because each store has its own QA and approval process as well as billing system. The best strategy is to focus on the top 5 stores and monitor the performance of each of them. The most popular Android independent stores in China include AppChina, Anzhi, Gfan, Hiapk, Liqucn,Wandoujia, eoemarket, and 91Market (note that Google Play is not even in the top 20).

In addition, many large companies, such as China Mobile (largest mobile provider), Baidu (top search engine), QQ (popular messenger), as well as Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi etc., have their own store.

Mobile network speed

The speed of China’s mobile networks still lags behind Western countries, Japan or Korea. If your app is graphics-heavy making it loading slow, it will most likely be abandoned. If you are considering localizing an existing app for Chinese market, you need to make sure that it works fast enough on much slower network speed.

Hopefully, the ongoing development and introduction of 5G infrastructure will help alleviate this problem.

Social media integration

Another challenge of localization is the integration of the local social media channels. Your app won’t work in China (unless used with VPN) if signup or login options use Facebook or Twitter as those are inaccessible from the Mainland. Same goes for sharing and retweeting. If social media is essential for your app, make sure to integrate the most popular local platforms such as Sina and/or Tencent Weibo, YouKu or WeChat.

Cloud storage issue

Popular cloud storage services, such as Dropbox or Box.net, are often too slow or inaccessible from China. Out of popular Western services, only Microsoft Skydrive seems to be relatively stable at the moment. If cloud storage is required for your app’s functionality, consider using one of the local solutions, although they may not be as fast and convenient. 

Payment system

Local mobile-based payment services have won the war against any other payment method. Two of the most popular services are Alipay and WeChat Pay. Remember that Chinese use of credit cards is very limited as they seem to entirely skip the credit card era straight to the digital money world. Another popular payment system with mobile in-app purchases works directly through mobile carrier, such as China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile. This, however, require more complex integration of your app into their payment system, something that can’t be done without an experienced local partner company.

Everyone takes a cut

Apps stores fees range wildly, something to be taken into account when choosing the most suitable one as well. QQ for instance, takes up to 70% of an app’s revenue, while China Unicom takes 30%. In addition, each store has its own guidelines and procedures as well as its own government tax and banking rates. Note, that government tax and various regulation fees can easily reach up to 30% on top of the app store cut!

Piracy concerns

If your app is successful there is no question that it will be copied. All of the world’s most popular apps have local copycats. Partnering with a local partner that is familiar with the apps store ecosystem can also help ensure that the copycat apps are pulled from the store to be replaced by the official ones. On the other hand, if you are simply coming up with a concept for an app and it is a good one, such “partner” can simply appropriate it. Therefore, due diligence is paramount in choosing your local partner.

Monetization model

Purchasing apps outright has been in decline worldwide. In China, people are even less willing to pay for an app, no matter how insignificant the price would be. This means that more creative monetization strategies should be considered. One of them would be selling ads. Recently, BBC ran a story about Chinese mother who developed flash card app for their kids which is now supplementing her income by $1,000 every month from the ads alone.

Another model is based on in-app purchases. It makes more sense to give away an app for free to get users more familiar with it. Once, hopefully, they start liking it, they would be more willing to pay for extras. This model works well for games and chat apps.

Finally, premium model is another one to consider: user downloads an app with limited functionality but has to pay for more enhanced features.

Apps for brands

Finally, there is another type of apps that aims at building brand awareness or serves as a marketing tool to supplement and support offline or web-based sales. If your app doesn’t require payment system or complex integration with other services, it can be launched much more easily. Also, such app would not be in any danger of  being copied as it has no value of itself without the brand behind it.

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Momo (陌陌)

Momo is, by far, the most popular Chinese dating app and by the number of users this mobile app is only second to WeChat. In the last couple of years Momo has been trying hard to improve its past seedy reputation re-positioning itself more of an interest based social app rather than purely a hook up service. It has added some shopping elements, games, groups etc. Those changes also made it harder to navigate – it is sort of all over the place nowadays. Nevertheless, when it comes to Chinese dating apps, Momo is the first one that comes to mind of most singles in China. Unfortunately, it is only available in Chinese – the English version was discontinued 3 years ago, although the company promises to launch an international version in the future.

Tantan (探探)

After Momo, Tantan is the second most popular Chinese dating app. It doesn’t have a great deal of features focusing on just one mission – being a purely a location based hook up app. In terms of design, Tantan is a shameless Tinder rip-off taking advantage of its famous trademark feature – left or right swipe. Two users that “liked” each other can start a chat and there is a daily limit on how many profiles can be viewed. Similar to Tinder, more features can be unlocked with premium membership which is how the app makes money. Although Tantan is almost exact copy of Tinder (it also can be used in English), the western original has only itself to blame for not making it in China. By linking itself to Facebook as the only way to create an account, it has locked itself out of Chinese market from the start.

Baihe (百合)

Baihe takes looking for a date onto a whole new level. It targets people who are serious about finding the right match and are not there just looking for a booty call. In fact, users’ info in Baihe look more like job resumes rather than typical dating profiles. All users must use real names and have to pass verification to ensure there are no fakes. They are also encouraged to list assets like housing and cars with the proof that they really own them. Educational credentials such as diplomas and certificates as well as credit score are also common profile features. Dating is a serious business on Baihe and this attitude is what sets it apart from other Chinese dating apps.

QingChiFan (请吃饭)

QingChiFan literally means “invitation to a meal” which is already self-explanatory name for this Chinese dating app. The idea is that getting to know each other over a meal is the most natural form of dating. Typically, guys would be the ones offering dinner invitations and it is up to a girl to accept it. Of course, the opposite is also possible although much less common. User can also choose to extend invitation to a group as well as set the time frame within which the offer is valid: only for today, tomorrow or within a week. The “inviter” can narrow down the criteria for invitees based on age, profession and even zodiac sign. QingChiFan seems to be a great concept with a lot of potential and, for a change, without a direct equivalent in the West as far as we know.

Maohu

Most recently, Tencent has launched Maohu, a new video-centered dating app.

Users are matched based on gender (only heterosexual matching is allowed), location, interests and dating preferences. Once matched, users can only communicate via video in 5 minutes “dating sessions” while wearing a “mask”. Mask is removed for male users after 5 minutes while females can wear it indefinetly. Once the mask is removed, the beauty filters are applied automatically.

The app can be considered using a “slow dating” approach – only 3 conversations per day are allowed. “Only video” dating app is a fresh idea in the market but with the popularity of live streaming, it seems to be catching on.

Qingliao

Tencent is determined to establish itself as the top player in mobile dating market with another app called Qingliao that is being marketed as “high quality socializing”.

In essence, this is another Tinder clone – users are matched if they like each other, the only difference is that instead of left or right swipes users tap a “heart” or a “cross”. Tencent puts an emphasis on verifying members which can be done by linking to user’s verified WeChat account or sumitting photo ID.

Qingliao also limits the total number of profiles users can view within 18 hours period: 15 profiles for men and 22 for women. Most likely, paid members will be able to increase that limit but this option was not yet available when we reviewed it.

Blued

No list of Chinese dating apps would be complete without mentioning Blued, the most popular service for gay community. It is also available in English. Upon registration, users are required to upload a short video of themselves which will be manually matched with uploaded photos by Blued team. This way, the app attempts to make sure that only real people are allowed to use it but without having them to use real identities – a valid concern for many gays living in a fairly conservative Chinese society. Although it is still the most popular Chinese dating app for gays, Blued may soon find itself fighting a strong competitor – the majority stake of Grindr, the most popular Western equivalent, has recently been acquired by a Chinese billionaire.

WeChat

WeChat isn’t typically considered a dating app, although it is often used as one. The popular “Search nearby” feature allows looking for profiles within a short distance filtered out by gender preference. Users have to enable the feature first before they can be found, which means that everyone who shows up in search results is making him or her visible on purpose. Moreover, no matter what dating app one uses, once the match is found, sooner or later, they would move to WeChat anyway – it’s just easier and everyone has it anyway. So, although WeChat isn’t a dating app, it can rightly be considered to be a part of the overall dating ecosystem in China.

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5 unique Taobao app features that drive its mobile sales

Picture search function

Imagine you are in a store looking at a really nice watch that would be just perfect for you. Unfortunately, you can’t be sure that you are getting the best deal on the price. That’s when Taobao app picture search comes really handy. All you have to do is snap a photo directly from within the app, or load previously taken image, and within seconds Taobao app displays the matches from its vast database.

This powerful functionality enables users to instantly compare online prices while browsing for goods in a physical store or, practically, anywhere they come across something they would like buy. In most cases, Taobao prices will also be lower which, in effect, threatens to turn some traditional retailers with brick and mortar stores into nothing more than showrooms.

Package tracking system

All online marketplaces have some type of shipment tracking system but only Taobao app takes it all the way to the new level. As soon as a seller ships the product you have just bought, it will be tracked at every point along its journey regardless of what delivery service was used.

Tracking packages is being updated within minutes which makes it really easy to figure out where it is and when it will be delivered. Finally, when it arrives, Taobao app will send you a push notification and, in some cases, SMS message as well.

Alipay payment integration

Alipay, Taobao payment system, is the principal technological enabler of the platform and the integral component of Chinese ecommerce landscape. Alipay provides an extremely easy and secure way to pay for purchases both online and offline.

Practically, everyone with a smartphone and a bank account in China has Alipay account which is also widely used to pay for purchases in physical stores, restaurants and even in the government offices. When used within China, Alipay doesn’t charge any fees except for very large transactions. Paying with Alipay is also very secure, convenient and fast. In effect, Alipay acts as a personal bank account in and of its own, complete with monthly statements and spending breakdowns.

Although, some Taobao vendors still accept cash on delivery, it is hard to imagine Taobao achieving such popularity without Alipay being its integral part.

AliWangWang instant chat

Chinese online consumers overwhelmingly expect Taobao vendors being able to answer questions and reply to inquiries within the shortest time possible. Also, the vendors realize that responding to inquiries from potential buyers in real time significantly increases chances of closing the sale. This is why Taobao integrated live chat app called AliWangWang, has become another important component of Taobao platform.

Customers can initiate chat sessions with sellers directly from the mobile app while sellers can use AliWangWang as a stand-alone app running on mobile or computer. It offers an easy way for both parties to communicate and not only serves as an effective pre-sale tool but also goes a long way in building trust.

Push notification remarketing

Almost all mobile apps use push notification in one way or the other. What makes it different in Taobao case is that the push notifications are tailored to each user and are made relevant to them. The way this is done is by taking into account users’ product search history, content of their wish list and past purchases in order to deliver tailor made messages that are most likely to pique their interest.

Also, unlike in the case of other apps, users tend not to disable push notifications from Taobao on their phones because they don’t want to miss messages related to product deliveries or any issues related to their purchases in progress

Mobile app makers are well aware that sending too many push notification can quickly annoy users. This why Taobao typically limits them to no more than once per day.

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Communication, browsing mobile internet, listening to music and watching videos are the most common activities of Chinese mobile users. Not surprisingly, companies who traditionally dominated those niches on the internet have also been the leading providers on mobile.

Interestingly enough, not only that there isn’t a single non-Chinese app in the top 10 list, they don’t even make the first 50. In fact, the only foreign app that enjoys some popularity in China is Google’s mobile Chrome browser.

Top 10 Mobile Apps in China

#1: WeChat

Having been installed with almost every Chinese smartphone, WeChat is the undisputed leader of mobile apps in China. WeChat user base has recently passed 700 million and continues growing. Tencent, WeChat developer, is one of the most innovative Chinese tech firms and is part of the so called BAT – the acronym for Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

#2: QQ

QQ is another hugely popular messaging app that has been the flagship Tencent product before WeChat. In fact, it is still the most popular communication tool on desktops and, is, perhaps, the most well known Chinese internet brand. Overall, its migration to mobile has been largely successful as offers a simple alternative to WeChat, although most people still use both. In fact, you are unlikely to meet a Chinese person below 50 who doesn’t have a QQ number.

#3: Mobile Baidu

While Baidu holds “only” about 60% of desktop search market in China, it completely dominates mobile with about 90% market share. Baidu mobile app is the third most used mobile app in China. It is also well designed, very fast, and accepts multiple input modes. Baidu is another part of BAT mentioned earlier.

#4: Taobao

When Chinese are not chatting or searching mobile net, they are shopping. Browsing Taobao app, is one of the most favorite pastimes for millions of people and it is often highly addictive. It is not uncommon to notice people shopping on their phone with Taobao app while eating, riding a subway or even driving…

#5: UC Browser

UC Browser is a mobile browser developed by Chinese mobile Internet company UCWeb. UC Browser claimed to have reached 500 million users in March 2014 majority of which were in China. It is still the most popular mobile browser here despite 2015 leaks linked to whistleblower Edward Snowden revealing some serious security weak points of UC Browser.

#6: QQ Browser

QQ Browser is the second most popular mobile browser across all mobile platforms. Tencent, has been leveraging their browser app installation using their other popular platforms mentioned earlier.

#7: Tencent Video

Watching videos is another most popular activity of Chinese mobile users and QQ video has been their platform of choice. Tencent video app has recently surpassed YouKu, the most popular Chinese video platform, in terms of mobile market share. Most commonly, it is used for watching TV soap operas and TV game shows while on the go.

#8: Sogou Mobile Input

Initially released in 2006, Sogou Pinyin is the most popular Chinese input software. It makes use of its search engine techniques which are the analysis and categorization of the most popular words or phrases on the Internet. Its mobile app version can be used with both Android and iOS devices offering dozens of colorful keyboards with hundreds of popular emojis and stickers that are so popular with Chinese mobile users.

#9: 360 Mobile Security

This app serves as both antivirus and memory management app and is most popular with Android devices, although it can installed with iPhones as well. It was developed by the second most popular Chinese search engine, Qihoo, also known as 360 Search. Qihoo 360 security software has a large install base on desktop, largely thanks to its free antivirus software.

#10: YouKu

YouKu is the largest video hosting platform and is among most popular video mobile apps in China. Although, it has been losing its mobile share market to Tencent, YouKu isn’t too far behind in terms of popularity. Often associated with pirated shows and films in the past, YouKu has largely cleaned up its act and now claims to only host legitimate content. Millions of Chinese tune to YouKu for their favorite TV shows everyday.

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Here we are reviewing several of those companies which are based on variety of different business models, products and services.

China sharing economy: 6 most innovative services

Didi – the “Uber killer”

Perhaps the most well-known example of China sharing economy is the ride-sharing service DiDi aka Didi Chuxing, the Chinese equivalent of Uber. In fact, last year, after spending billions of dollars on Chinese market, Uber has sold its Chinese company to Didi which now dominates the ride-sharing market providing transportation services for close to 400 million users across over 400 cities in China.

Before acquiring Uber China, Didi Chuxing was itself the result of the merger of rival firms Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache (backed by the two largest Chinese Internet companies, Tencent and Alibaba respectively).

One major difference between DiDi and Uber and one of the reasons it won over Uber is the fact that the service is used by both private drivers and taxi drivers alike. Getting taxi drivers on their side helped DiDi in gaining commanding market share while Uber was busy fighting with them (as it still does in other markets).

The battle of bike sharing apps

After sharing car rides, came the bike sharing apps. In fact, nothing has changed the familiar landscape of large cities like Beijing or Shanghai in recent years like thousands upon thousands of colored bikes parked all over the cities, another sign of emergence of China sharing economy.

The new service took advantage of Chinese traditional love of biking and the availability of the technology to make easy sharing possible (more on that in upcoming posts). The market is shared between four main bike sharing apps that are currently stuck in competitive deadlock: Mobike and Ofo being the two largest competitors followed by Xiaoming Danche and Xiangqi Chuxing.

Each company has its own color associated with the bikes: orange for Mobike, yellow for Ofo, blue Xiaoming Danche and green Xiangqi Chuxing. The rainbow views like those below are quickly becoming a permanent fixture in major Chinese cities. Well, at least until the next crackdown:

Huochebang – Uber for trucks

Huochebang , or so called “Uber for trucks”, is one of the latest ventures of China’s largest search engine Baidu. The company was founded in 2014 and has already achieved the famed status of Unicorn of China sharing economy recently surpassing $1 Billion valuation.

The company is positioned to become a major player in China’s trillion yuan logistics industry and is considered “the largest and the only nationwide platform in China”, according to Wu Wenjie, managing partner of Baidu Capital, the financial backer of the startup.

As Bloomberg was reporting, Huochebang works with 2.3 million trucks and handles as much as 100,000 orders daily to haul everything from seeds and farming tools to bulkier items such as cement and coal. The company processes as much as $120 million in shipping fees daily and has about 1,000 service centers sprinkled across China supporting drivers.

Tujia – Chinese AirBNB? Not quite.

AirBNB, one of the pioneers of sharing economy, hasn’t been particularly successful in China. Most of the local copycats also couldn’t successfully replicate the model for Chinese market. However, one company Tujia.com, founded in 2011, did become a success story in the space achieving a unicorn status.

Tuijia attributes its success to significantly altering AirBNB business model. Early on they have realized that a model that is primarily based on trust won’t get very far due to different cultural perceptions and established habits of Chinese travelers. As a result, all the properties listed on Tuijia website are managed by the company itself rather than being an intermediary or mere facilitator like AirBNB.

Sharing for a rainy day

A few years ago, a popular US show Shark Tank featured a group of entrepreneurs with an idea of sharing umbrellas. The concept was laughed at and slaughtered by merciless “sharks”. In China, the cause was taken over by Molisan, an umbrella sharing app.

According to SixthTone, the service has only been introduced in Guangzhou and Fuzhou so far. For the modest fee of 2 yuan ($0.30) per day, users can pick up one of the company’s umbrellas by scanning a QR code and return it later. People with a high enough score on Sesame Credit — a credit rating system by tech giant Alibaba — can forego the 20-yuan deposit.

Molisan is not only one in this space, another startup Hujie has been developing the same solution. The umbrellas are simply attached to fences with a lock that can be unlocked with app by scanning the QR code.

Power to the people

Cellphone running out of power? No problem! At least four Chinese startups are introducing a solution in the form of cellphone charger sharing.

As SixthTone recently reported, an industry pioneer Shenzhen Laidian Technology Co. Ltd.’s business model is to set up charging spots in public places that attract heavy foot traffic: such as restaurants, shopping malls, train stations, and airports. For a small fee, a user can borrow one of the fully charged batteries after scanning a QR code with their phone, and they can return the charger later at any station.

Although, some are optimistic about the concept, there has also been a great deal of skepticism. Some users expressed concern that chargers can be used to steal personal data while others criticized their quality.

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It has achieved 2.5 percent penetration rate which is no small feat in the crowded app market in China, although it still dwarfs in comparison with WeChat with over 80 percent penetration.

While WeChat and QQ are for connecting with friends, Momo is an app for connecting with strangers based on interests and location.  Its closest equivalent in the Western market would be Tinder or Grindr. The app has been gaining in popularity in the recent years, transforming itself from a hook-up app into broader social network Designed to connect people based both location and interests, by the end of 2014 it claimed to have 180.3 million registered accounts, 60.2 million monthly active users, 25.5 million daily active users.

The company started monetizing also in 2014 but hasn’t been profitable. After IPO, things have began to change and in Q1 2015, Momo achieved total net revenues of US$26.3, up 383 percent on the same period last year. US$6.1 million of that was from social gaming, US$13.0 million from paid memberships, and US$1.1 million from paid emoticons and the gifting feature.

The app managed to make a net income of US$6.7 million in Q1 2015, compared to a net loss of nearly US$3 million at the end of 2014.

Unlike WeChat, Momo doesn’t have an English version – it was shut down earlier with the promise to come back one day. At the moment, Momo has decided to stay focused on domestic market and Chinese communities overseas.

The app is free and its revenue comes primarily from gaming, premium membership fees (it has 2.3 million paying membership subscribers), emoticon sales and advertising. In fact, advertising seems to be one of the most promising routes to generate revenue – Momo has also launched a new advertising platform for offline retailers.

One of the potential advertising possibilities are around targeting customers through location based service. For example, while users are scanning for people to connect with, an interest-based ad of a store or a club can be inserted with the results. It could be offering a discount or a free drink, inviting people in the area to pay a visit.

Advertisers would simply specify the geographic area and the time period of ad placement and Momo would display it based on those settings. Currently, it charges 10 RMB each time user interacts with an ad. It is very likely that Momo will continue adding services that allow business to advertise and target users based on their profiles.

In August 2014, Momo Inc. launched Dao Dian Tong, a marketing tool for local merchants. Through Dao Dian Tong, local businesses and merchants can construct profile pages that allow Momo users to find them with the Momo’s LBS. Members can see the businesses just as they would see other Momo users. Momo Inc. plans to further monetize user traffic by referring users from the Momo platform to e-commerce companies.

There is little doubt that Momo’s user base, just like WeChat’s, will continue growing in China, especially considering the fact that Chinese government started to gradually shut down foreign based messaging apps. This year, Line and Kakao Talk got blocked and Viber has been experiencing periodic disruptions on the Mainland. Whatsapp is still working in China but  its users may be quickly moving to a more stable and features-rich WeChat, and, possibly Momo as well.

2015 was all about live streaming in China and Momo has also added live-streaming function which helped it gaining more users and revenue around it.

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Chinese online shoppers also grew to trust online payments and the vast majority is quite comfortable using it to pay for purchases on the internet. Alipay, the most popular Chinese online payment system by Alibaba, holds the largest market share. It powers two largest ecommerce platforms, Taobao and Tmall and is extensively used in large number of third party applications and platforms.

Main Chinese Online Payment Systems

As of the end of 2015, Alipay accounted for almost 70% of the entire Chinese online payment market. It is fair to say that almost everyone in China with a cellphone and a bank account has Alipay account which is somewhere around 700 million.

Alipay transaction fees are also much lower than PayPal. In general, cross border transactions are the most expensive but it depends on the type of contract a merchant has with Alipay as well as the volume.

The second largest online payment system is TenPay developed by Tencent. In fact, TenPay also powers WeChat Pay, the payment system used by WeChat users. Thanks to this app’s explosive growth, TenPay was able to increase its market share quite significantly during 2015 to about 20%, primarily on the account of Alipay.

WeChat Pay is now extensively used for many types of transactions. With web payments, customers simply scan the QR Code on their mobile phone with WeChat to make a payment to a website. For mobile users, WeChat Pay is used for payment within WeChat Official Accounts to enable sales from within the app.

Both Alipay and WeChat Pay are increasingly used for offline transactions at traditional stores and restaurants in China and even abroad. A customer simply opens the app in order to allow the merchant to scan their QR code with a special scanner or, often, just another smartphone. As many phones now have fingerprint scanning sensor, placing a finger on it is all it takes to complete a transaction (otherwise, a customer has to type in their secret code on their phone). Alternatively, a customer can scan a merchant’s QR code to send the payment but this way is becoming less common at the traditional point of sale.

Since those type of transactions are free to customers, Alipay and WeChat Pay serve as substitutes for carrying cash or credit cards and offer both security and convenience.

Alipay and TenPay (WeChat Pay) account for almost 90% of current mobile payment with other players, such as Lakala, JD wallet, YeePay, 99Bill and others quite far behind.

As for foreign alternatives, PayPal was not able to get any meaningful user base so far and is unlikely to do so in the future. Apple Pay still barely registers in China mobile payment market, although it is still quite new.

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• Most Chinese use smartphones as a primary device for getting online;
• Major ecommerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall and JD already have very successful mobile apps;
• Mobile payments infrastructure is quite well developed with Alipay Wallet being the market leader;
• WeChat, the most popular mobile app in China, already enables built-in ecommerce capabilities within the platform.

In this post we’d like to share a new infographic from Go-globe on the state of m-commerce in Asia Pacific. It clearly demonstrates that Chinese m-commerce is leading the region in number of areas.

• Over 70% of Chinese consumers have made purchases using smartphones, almost double the figures for such advanced places like Hong Kong or Singapore;
• 37.4% of Chinese consumers shop for clothing and accessories with their smartphones. This underscores the importance of mobile component in marketing strategy for fashion brands in China;
• 27.9% of of Asia Pacific consumers are adopting mobile banking. Although, there is no data specifically for China, it is safe to assume that the numbers here are near the top of that scale;

Asia Pacific M-commerce vs. Chinese M-commerce

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Didi-Kuaidi, valued at $15 billion, boasts more than one million drivers in 360 cities, compared to Uber’s roughly 100,000 drivers in 20 cities. It has also recently invested $100 million in Uber’s main rival Lyft. Two companies agreed to offer services to each other’s users in the countries where each isn’t currently present.

What are the reasons for Uber in China being unable to become the market leader despite having an early mover advantage?

The claim that a foreign service provider being squeezed out by the government in favor the local competitor doesn’t really hold water. Beijing’s recently published draft law on regulating private car-hailing services is going to affect both rivals equally. In fact, Uber China is already structured as a local company in the eyes of Chinese law. Uber Global is listed as an investor of Uber China, among several others mostly local companies.

There are, however, three main reasons why Didi-Kuaidi has managed to capture commanding market share and all of them have to do with Chinese rival’s better understanding of the market.

First reason is the fact that Didi-Kuaidi, unlike Uber, doesn’t see traditional taxi industry as the enemy. In fact, it treats it as a partner and cooperated with taxi drivers by distributing their mobile apps among them to be used as an additional channel to attract more passengers. This allowed Didi-Kuadi to quickly gain more drivers, enabling the company to scale much faster and in more cities than Uber in China.

The second reason is strategic partnership with the right internet conglomerates: Alibaba and Tencent. On the opposite side, Uber has managed to secure strong backing of another internet giant Baidu, the third member of the infamous Chinese BAT (the collective term used to describe three companies that practically run Chinese internet).

Unfortunately to Uber, Tencent and Alibaba are much better positioned to add value to a car sharing service. Tencent is behind WeChat, most popular mobile social media app that has now integrated private cab hailing capability within the app itself. Uber has already complained that WeChat is shutting them out of the app but there is little they can do about it.

Alibaba, the largest ecommerce company in the world, has been integrating similar capability into its Alipay mobile wallet used by hundreds of millions of Chinese on daily basis.

On the other hand, Baidu does have a potential to help Uber getting more clients through its mobile navigation app, although it is still not as popular as WeChat or Alipay Wallet and has many rivals in this market. Recently, Baidu started to add Uber pickup points to its map – a new service that Uber has been introducing in some cities.

The third reason of why Uber in China couldn’t catch the lead is the fact that it was too slow to introduce features that Chinese users seem to like. Didi-Kuaidi has been much more innovative in this regard by offering more ride options to its users. For example, it has a popular group ride-sharing service along defined routes called “Hitch.” The company even tapped into busy travel market by offering bus services to tour groups and transportation to events. In addition, in an effort to help with drunk driving problem, the company has also launched a new “chauffeur service” that enables customers to hire a designated driver to take them back home in their own car.

So far, it hasn’t been easy for Uber in China but it certainly isn’t going anywhere. Even a tenth of China’s lucrative market of 800 million city dwellers represents a much larger business than in many of other Uber’s locations where it dominates the market.

The post Uber in China: 3 Reasons Why It Still Lags Behind first appeared on Sampi.co.

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Overall, digital advertising spending has already surpassed TV in China. In fact, TV ads are gradually falling out of favor with the advertisers, mostly due to huge costs, limited targeting options and complete lack of interactivity. TV ads may still be effective for blanket advertising for products that benefit from maximum reach. Unfortunately, whenever more granular approach is required, they lack flexibility.

Digital advertising, on the other hand, has none of those problems – it can be fine tuned to a specific demographics and made to target people with relevant interests.On top of that, digital advertising almost always comes with robust analytics allowing endless analyzing and tweaking the delivery to maximize efficiency.

Main factors driving China mobile ads market

Mobile adverting promises to ad another dimension to digital ads – ability to reach consumers anytime, anywhere and on their most intimate gadget.

In addition, distrust for traditional media, such as TV and print, is still quite common in China – this could be another factor behind the growth of China mobile ads.

Mobile penetration in China continues to increase, although it is still behind some other developed markets. This means that the growth of China mobile ads market will be further stimulated by more mobile phones in the hands of consumers and continually improving mobile infrastructure.

Smartphones are still the primary device for connecting to the internet for majority of Chinese. This is another factor why China mobile ads are growing fast.

High efficiency of China mobile ads is also attributed to the fact that Chinese do spend money on mobile, mainly with Taobao and other mobile based internet stores. Alipay, primary Chinese payment system that is integrated with the largest stores (except WeChat) provides the required “lubricant” to make shopping with smartphones an easy and safe experience.

It is still remains to be seen whether developers of China mobile ads platform can avoid some of the problems common in digital ads, particularly fraud.

One of the most powerful features of mobile advertising is its capability to target consumers based on their location. Knowing where your customers are can allow advertisers to deliver the most relevant message and maximize the chances of conversion. Without a doubt, it is going to be the future of digital adverting.

Emarketer’s research concludes that by 2019, digital ads will account for almost 60% of the total advertising spend in China with about three quarters of which will be entirely mobile. TV ads will account for about 20% by then with the rest split between print, outdoor and radio.

It is still remains to be seen whether developers of China mobile ads platform can avoid some of the problems common in digital ads, particularly fraud. I’ve discussed the problem with China digital adverting in one of the earlier posts.

The post China Mobile Ads Explosive Growth first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post China Mobile Ads Explosive Growth appeared first on Sampi.co.