Blog Sep. 11, 2017
What are the differences in download numbers and ARPU in Asia? Apple or Google, which has more revenue?
Currently Japanese game publishers are looking not only at the domestic market but the global market as well, in which of course the main target is Asia. Till only a few years ago the market of gaming apps were centralized in Europe, however, with Japanese contents being a central player, the Asian market has been shifting into the spotlight. However, Asia is too large to just simplify into one region as each country’s market differs greatly. This report picks up 8 countries within the Asian region and compares download numbers ARPUs as of July 2017; to highlight the differences that exist.
Apple App Store has a large market in China and Japan, with a significant difference compared to the other countries.
For the Apple App Store, China and Japan are the main markets with large shares in downloads and revenue. China ranked first by far, with their number of downloads being 4.5 times larger than that of Japan that placed second. Of course, they ranked first in revenue as well.
Japan ranked second in both downloads and revenues, and their major characteristic lies in the fact that the revenue rate is high per each download. In other Asian countries, the revenue for each download did not reach 1 USD, whilst for Japan it was 3.57 USD on average; making clear that Japanese players are high spenders. On the other side of the spectrum was India, in which despite number of downloads rank 4th, the revenue per download was the lowest ranked at 9th.
The markets that follow China and Japan are Korea and Taiwan, however the scale of numbers are less than 1/20 of China or 1/18 of the Japanese market. For countries with large populations and high expectations of economic growth like that of India and Indonesia, despite large download numbers monthly revenues are not high, with a revenue of approximately 500 USD monthly.
Highest Google Play downloads in India, at a pace reaching 700 million monthly
The situation Google Play differs greatly from the Apple App Store. There are some obvious reasons such as the fact that Google Play is unavailable in China (due to this, the comparison will only be made between 8 countries, not 9).
In terms of number of downloads, India comes first with a staggering monthly number of nearly 700 million. This number not only ranks first in Asia but also the world. It has been the largest number to be recorded by a country on Google Play rankings. Placing second is Indonesia with a number reaching nearly 300 million.
The reason for the large gap between Google Play numbers compared to Apple App Store numbers in India and Indonesia who place first and second respectively can be thought to be due to a few reasons. One is the difference in population (India 1.3 billion, Indonesia 260 million) and the fact that the more affordable Android devices are more popular than iPhones.
In terms of revenue, Japan ranks at first; but compared to the Apple App Store, with Korea and Taiwan is high. Korea’s annual revenue reached 1.9 billion USD in July 2017, which is 7.6 times of that of the Apple App Store. Taiwan’s Google Play revenue was 60 million, 2.7 times of the Apple App Store. The reason behind this can be thought to be due to the popularity of Android device developers such as Samsung and LG.
About “PRIORI DATA”
“PRIORI DATA”, established in 2013 is an app market analysis company headquartered in Berlin. The company provides information such as forecasted download numbers and revenues of apps of 57 countries.
The data can be divided into categories and subcategories such as games at a reasonable cost that is affordable to start up developers, with free trials provided.
For more information visit: http://www.prioridata.net/
