China the second largest iPhone app market, Japan the most lucrative in Asia [Distimo]

Asia is the new center of the world and the tech reports are focusing on that as well. Distimo has released a report on iPhone app usage across Asia. China is the second biggest market for iPhone apps after the US. Distimo has mapped the download volumes of the top 300 applications across the world on a logarithmic scale.

Download volume

Dark blue in the map represents low download volume and pink represents high volume. US is at the highest end of the spectrum. Many Asian countries are hovering between blue and pink. Sri Lanka’s volume is low while South Korea and China are seeing great volumes. iTunes app store do not display games for South Korea yet the volume is high in that country.

India’s download volume has increased significantly and it has grown by 40% since December 2010.

Monetization

 

Asians are price sensitive. We don’t need a proof for that. Distimo has shown us the price sensitivity of Asian continent with data. The proportion of paid downloads with respect to the all downloads is significantly lower in Asia when compared to the US.

The average download volume of 300 popular apps in Asia ~ average download volume in the US.iPhone users in the US are eager to pay for the apps than Asian users. The ratio is almost one third. If we take out Japan, the ratio will fall to one sixth. App revenues is about two thirds of the US revenues. Japan generates the most revenues in Asia. The average selling price for an app in Asia is $2.62. In the US it is $1.48.

The ratio of paid apps across Asia is less than 7%. In Japan, for every 100 apps downloaded 6.05 apps are paid apps, highest rate in Asia. China has the lowest ratio at 0.99%. India’s percentage is at 2.45% and average selling price of the app is $1.87. Again the average selling price of an app is much higher in Japan.

In-app purchases

While the Distimo report says that Asia doesn’t like in-app purchases, the data shown paints a different picture. 79% of the revenue from 200 top grossing applications in Singapore came from in-app purchases. This is much higher than 68% for the United States. Even Malaysia fares much better. China has one of the lowest in-app purchase rate at 34%. India surprisingly has a 60% (approximately) in-app purchase rate.

App categories

When it comes to app categories, whatever works in the US, works in Asia. Games of all kinds, Entertainment and Social networking are top app categories.

Localization

Countries like China and South Korea prefer regional content. In China, 65% of the 300 most popular apps are popular regionally. India on the other hand would find more favor for apps which are popular in other regions as well. Localization should help the app makers quite a bit as Asia prefers a local flavor.

When it comes to apps Asia isn’t all that different. It loves the same kind of apps like Games, entertainment and Social networking. A local flavor should help the content part. As for monetization, app developers have to think of new ways as paid apps and in-app purchases aren’t serving them well.