COVID-19 and Quarantines Lead to Massive Opportunity In China’s Games Market

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, AppInChina has seen a dramatic increase in inquiries and new clients for game publishing in Mainland China as many game publishers in the USA and Europe realize that 1.4 billion Chinese are staying at home, looking for new games to play, and don’t have access to the Western app markets (like the Google Play Store).

“Our current clients are asking us to help them increase their promotional efforts,” said Todd Kuhns, marketing director for AppInChina. “And game publishers who have not yet entered the Chinese market are telling us that the time is right, with a captive audience hungry for entertainment to fill the time at home.”

During the height of the lockdowns in February, average daily time spent across mobile devices in China rose to five hours – a 30% increase, according to App Annie. Across the Apple App Store China, there was a 25% increase to 63 million downloads per week that same month.

According to App Annie, business and education categories saw the biggest surge in downloads, peaking in Febuary 2020 at roughly twice the weekly average in 2019.

The increased demand for leisure, business and education apps led many AppInChina clients already listed on the Chinese Android and Apple App stores to increase advertising to improve downloads. Analytics firm SensorTower predicts this surge in downloads will drive a doubling in consumer spending on apps over the next five years.

“During this time, we foresee a steady increase in awareness of the lucrative Chinese gaming market,” Kuhns said, “and are already expanding our business to meet the increased demand for publishing games in China on Steam, Android, iOS, and consoles over the next 12 months.”

AppInChina’s operations have remained steady during the outbreak. Although the team works from an office in the heart of Beijing’s central business district, the company has been supporting clients abroad since 2013, using tools such as its proprietary web-based client dashboard and dedicated English-speaking account managers, who are always accessible through messaging and direct phone calls.

“We’re all back together in our Beijing office now,” said CEO Rich Bishop. “But even during the worst of it, with team members distributed across the world in various quarantine situations, we were able to continue business as usual with no interruptions in service for our clients.”

AppInChina helps developers distribute, advertise, and monetize their mobile apps and games in China. The process of publishing a game or app in China is challenging and time-consuming for even the largest companies, but our international team does all the hard work for them. And we’ve been working for our clients across the oceans for the last 7 years, so we’ve been perfectly positioned to keep your service and business uninterrupted through this pandemic.