[Worth reading] 2016 Global App Development Report!

Today, Cheetah Mobile released the 2016 Global App Development Report at the CONNECT conference. The full report is below.

Preface

In 2016, the Internet speed became faster and the penetration rate became higher, and the global mobile Internet entered its heyday. In the field of mobile Internet, emerging countries in the traditional sense are developing rapidly, impacting previously mature Internet markets represented by the United States and Japan: China, which has the largest number of mobile Internet users in the world, India, where major Internet companies are rushing to establish a beachhead, Brazil, where Internet development has surpassed economic development, and Indonesia, known as the "social media capital of the world"... Almost half of the world's population lives here, making it a powerful representative of "mobile first". We believe that this change will also change the landscape of world technological development.

China has become the world's largest Internet market. At the same time, China's mobile Internet products have gained high recognition in the global market. Piano Tiles 2, which ranks first on the Android and iOS charts in many countries, SHAREit, which created miracles in India, and AliExpress, which brings Chinese products to the world... all of these just confirm the Queen of the Internet's evaluation of China in 2015: a technological leader. In terms of mobile hardware, Chinese mobile phone brands such as Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE, and Xiaomi have attracted worldwide attention with their outstanding performance.

As a pioneer of Chinese publishers going overseas, Cheetah Mobile already has 2.341 billion installations and 635 million monthly active users worldwide. In this report, Cheetah Global Think Tank and appInsight conducted research and analysis on active apps and nearly 100 mobile phone brands in 51 key countries and regions around the world based on their own big data and user portraits. It comprehensively depicts the global mobile Internet map from different dimensions such as classification trends, national characteristics, publisher strength, mobile phone brands, etc.

Report Highlights

●Tool apps still have a lot of room for development and are a shortcut for Chinese companies to go global

●Video social apps will be popular around the world

●Light games are becoming more and more popular

●Google and Facebook have become the absolute leaders in the global App market

●China has become the world's largest app publisher

●The potential of the Indian market is far greater than that of other countries and regions

●European game publishers emerge as a new force, while Japanese games are no longer popular

● Interesting list: 1. Japan is the most popular place for online shoppers; 2. Argentina is the most talkative; 3. China is the country that plays cards all the time

Data description:

1. The data cutoff date of this report is January 31, 2016

2. All data comes from Cheetah Mobile's 2.34 billion global installations and 635 million monthly active users, so it is only applicable to Android and cannot represent the situation of iOS.

3. For the categories of apps involved in the report, please refer to the classification information of Google Play App Store.

4. For more data description, please see the end of the article

Part 1 Global App & Game Overview Analysis

App Profile Analysis

1. Analysis of market share of apps in each category

Communication apps have the largest number of active users, and people's demand for traditional operators is being replaced by mobile Internet

Communication apps and tool apps are on par with each other in terms of the number of active users. Communication needs have become the primary demand of app users around the world. The number of active users of communication apps has gradually increased, indicating that with the expansion of the mobile Internet market and the gradual popularization of communication apps such as WeChat, Whatsapp, Messenger, and Line, people's demand for telecom operators will be more focused on network services, and their reliance on traditional services provided by telecom operators, such as calls and text messages, will become less and less.

2. Analysis of growth potential of various types of apps

Cheetah Global Think Tank believes that the higher the proportion of new users of a certain type of app, the higher the growth potential of this type of app.

Tool products are still the mainstay of the App download market

The installation volume of tool apps is far higher than that of other types of apps, 1.7 times that of the second-ranked communication apps. At the same time, tool apps are second only to communication apps in terms of the number of active users. This shows that tool apps are particularly important to Android users. The main reason is that the native Android system is relatively simple and extensive, and users have a strong demand for functions such as junk cleaning and phone security. However, these functions require third-party tools to complete. Therefore, as of now (end of January 2016), the market for tool apps still has great potential.

3. Analysis of the number of apps used per capita by type

Tool apps are the only type of app that people use more than 3 times per day.

This shows that tool apps are of various types and meet diverse user needs. Users need to choose more apps at the same time to cover all daily needs.

4. Analysis of user stickiness and loyalty of various types of apps

Cheetah Global Think Tank examined the number of times active users of a certain category of apps used it and concluded that the greater the frequency of use, the greater the stickiness of this type of app.

People use communication, tool, and social apps almost every day.

Communication, tool, and social apps are high-frequency apps, significantly higher than other types of apps, with the average person using them more than 7 times a week.

Social and animation apps have the highest user loyalty

If the average number of apps of a certain category used by the average person is small, but the average number of times each app is used is high, which is the upper right corner of the above figure, we believe that users are highly loyal to apps of this category.

It can be seen that animation and social categories have the highest user loyalty.

(1) Judging from the proportion of active users, the user scale of animation is not large, and it can be said to be a relatively niche category among popular categories. The average person in this category uses only about one app, and each app is used 3.8 times on average. This shows that it is difficult for apps to please the large and loyal anime user base, but once user needs are met, they will be rewarded with extremely high loyalty.

(2) Social apps have a clear clustering effect, are obviously exclusive, and have high user stickiness. For example, Google launched Google+ around 2011 to challenge Facebook's position. Although it gained a large number of users after Google's vigorous promotion, not many users bought into it because everyone around them was using Facebook, and users would usually choose to use Facebook as well.

5. We discovered some new trends in app development

Tool apps still have a lot of room for development and are a shortcut for Chinese companies to go global

The global market demand for tools remains very strong. From a classification perspective, tool products remain the mainstay of the App download market. Tool apps are particularly important for Android users. Moreover, the tool category is the only app category without cultural barriers. If Chinese companies want to expand into overseas markets, the tool category is an effective stepping stone.

According to research by Cheetah Global Think Tank, three types of tool apps have seen the fastest growth: file transfer, wifi password, and privacy apps.

Video social apps will become popular all over the world

The sudden rise of live streaming apps in China in 2016 is particularly noteworthy. This type of app has common characteristics: sociality, UGC, entertainment, and internet celebrity economy. This type of live streaming application caters to the desire of those born in the 1990s and 2000s for self-expression, as well as their desire to communicate and share with others. At the same time, these apps are the birthplace of Internet celebrities, allowing the hosts to gain both fame and fortune. The websites are highly sustainable and will not be short-lived. With the decline in Internet access costs in various countries and the popularization of 4G networks, especially the success of similar apps abroad, we have reason to believe that such apps will develop greatly in 2016.

Take Yingke, a platform focusing on “live streaming for all”, as an example. It is a platform for real-time live broadcast based on existing social relationships. Celebrities such as former U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, Wang Han, and Wang Kai have all started live streaming on Inke, making Inke quickly the most popular live streaming app in early 2016.

Such apps are becoming increasingly popular internationally. Facebook's "Facebook Live", Google's "YouTube Connect" which is being developed, and Twitter's Periscope are all live streaming features that were developed in 2016. The three will face off against each other in the world.

Game Overview Analysis

1. Analysis of market share of various types of games

The leading advantage of casual games has narrowed slightly

As the earliest market segment to attract high-quality developers, casual games have created many world-class mobile game publishers. Well-known companies such as King are focusing on this field. Therefore, casual games are deservedly ranked No. 1 in terms of the scale of active game users. However, its leading advantage has narrowed slightly in recent years, and other game types such as arcade, puzzle, action, and strategy have followed closely behind.

2. Analysis of growth potential of various types of games

Cheetah Global Think Tank believes that the higher the proportion of new users of a certain type of game, the higher the growth potential of this type of game.

Arcade games have the largest number of new installs and are the most popular

The analysis found that arcade games, casual games, and action games were the three categories of game applications with the most new installations on people's mobile phones. Among them, arcade games have the largest number of new installations among all games and are the most popular game type. For example, the arcade game "Piano Tiles 2" produced by Cheetah Mobile topped the Google Play game list in more than 160 countries in 2015 and was rated as the most popular game.

3. Analysis of the number of games used per capita by type of game:

Educational games have the smallest share but the greatest potential

Educational games have a small market share, but the number of games installed per capita is high. The reason may be that the audience of educational games is mostly parents, who are looking for entertaining and educational games for their children, so they are constantly trying new game works, or each game has a different educational angle. Although the audience for this type of game is relatively narrow, users have a strong desire to install educational games, making it a type of game with great potential.

4. Analysis of stickiness and loyalty of various types of games:

Strategy games and casual games have high user stickiness

Strategy games, casual games, role-playing games, and casino games are all used frequently. On average, users of these types of games open the apps at least 10 times a week. Users of these types of games are more addicted to the games.

Strategy games have the highest user loyalty and the best quality users

Through data observation, we found that users who play strategy games, role-playing games, casino games and other types of games are more willing to focus on playing one game. Among them, users of strategy games are more in line with the portrait of deeply addicted people. Although the average number of apps installed by users of this type of games is only 1.2, the average number of times they open the games per week is as high as 17 times. A large amount of gaming experience is concentrated in a very small number of high-quality strategy games. Therefore, we believe that strategy games are the type of games with the highest user stickiness and their users are also the highest quality.

5. New trends in gaming

Light games are becoming more and more popular

Light games are easy to play and highly entertaining, and gradually became a hot topic in the second half of 2015 and even in 2016. "Piano Tiles 2", an arcade game produced by Cheetah Mobile, allows you to play beautiful music without any training. In 2015, it topped the Google Play game charts in more than 160 countries and was rated as the most popular game. Stack is also a fast-growing arcade game that is beautiful and easy to play. The gameplay is similar to the Tower of Babel on the Symbian system. Players need to build a reactor using blocks and place each block as accurately as possible so that the overall center of gravity of the reactor is stable and does not shake. "Fishdom: DeepDive" is a new elimination game. When King's Candy Crush Saga dominated the global game charts, similar games were still popular, which shows the charm of light games.

Clash Royale will be the phenomenal game of 2016

Clash Royale swept the global game growth charts in early 2016. It is a mobile card strategy game based on Clash of Clans. It took advantage of the popularity of Clash of Clans, but its performance was even more impressive. Many netizens commented that it is "the best real-time battle mobile online game." Judging from the current development situation, it will not only be a phenomenon in the first quarter, but will also have a place in the whole of 2016.

Part 2: National

1. Distribution of mobile Internet users:

Based on user sampling and data models, Cheetah Global Think Tank estimated the size of Android users in 51 major countries and regions around the world, and ranked them in the following table: (Although the United States is the largest Internet country, it ranks lower due to its smaller population base)

BRICS countries are strong

(1) The BRICS countries have firmly taken the lead in the world due to their population advantages and the recent rapid development of the Internet. From another perspective, due to the importance of the BRICS countries, they have also become the focus of strategic layout for many large Internet companies. Under the influence of these two forces, their growth will dominate the trend of the world's Internet.

(2) Mexico is close to the United States and is greatly influenced by the United States in terms of science and technology. On the other hand, Carlos Slim Helu, Mexico's richest man (and former world's richest man), and his America Movil, rule almost all of Latin America except Brazil. For Internet companies, conquering Mexico also means getting closer to other Latin American countries that are similar to Mexico in culture and language. In recent years, Mexico's development of the Internet has attracted much attention.

(3) Half of the top ten are from Asia. Asia is the largest and most populous of the seven continents, with more than half of the world's population. Therefore, as the Internet develops further and the penetration rate of smart devices increases, more Asian countries may enter the list.

2. Mobile Internet Market Maturity Ranking

Cheetah Global Think Tank believes that the more categories of apps a user uses (based on the categories on Google Play), the more mature the Internet market in a country or region is.

Japan and the United States are the most mature markets

(1) The United States and Japan, which have always been at the forefront of science and technology, deservedly ranked in the top two. A large number of well-educated mobile Internet population is driving the traditional lifestyle to gradually transform into a smarter and more comfortable one.

(2) The maturity of the U.S. market is also reflected in its benchmark role. According to data tracked by Cheetah Global Think Tank over the past few months, phenomenal apps generally appear first in the United States and then gradually spread to other countries; and most of the excellent apps that are popular around the world originate from the U.S. market or have their prototypes found in the U.S. market.

3. Ranking of Market Competition Intensity

Cheetah Global Think Tank uses App Insight data to divide the average number of apps used per person per week by the category of apps used, and obtains the average number of apps used by netizens in each category in 51 major countries and regions (i.e., the competition index).

Competition is most intense in emerging countries

(1) The average of 51 countries and regions is 1.82, and the highest is 2.02. The higher the value, the higher the degree of competition.

(2) The markets in emerging countries are still in their infancy, with low barriers to entry. Developers are rushing in and are still in the stage of scrambling for land. No single company or oligopoly has yet formed in any field. But on the other hand, it also shows that the markets in these countries are still unstable. If there are products and promotion strategies that fit the local market, there is hope of gaining a foothold in the local market.

4. Potential Areas for New APPs

Based on AppInsight data, Cheetah Global Think Tank ranked the countries where Internet users have the strongest willingness to install apps by dividing the number of people who installed apps in a country or region within a week by the total number of weekly active users in that country. This is used to measure the development potential of various countries and regions.

The potential of APP in South Korea and India is far greater than that in other countries and regions

(1) The number of new installations by users in developed countries such as Japan and Italy is relatively small. This may be because the market is becoming mature and people’s needs have been met by existing apps.

(2) Users in countries such as France, South Korea, and the United States are relatively open-minded and have a strong desire to try new things. Even if existing apps are already very diverse, they are still willing to explore new and unknown apps.

(3) Due to cultural factors, the three Spanish-speaking countries of Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina lack sufficient high-quality apps that meet local needs to stimulate user interest. Users are less willing to try new things.

(4) In countries where users are more likely to try new things, app stores have a greater chance; in countries where users are less likely to try new things, increasing app penetration through pre-installation is a good solution.

5. Mobile Phone Dependence

Based on the total number of apps used per capita in each country and region, the top ten countries and regions where mobile phones are most frequently used and most dependent on them are found:

Japanese users are most dependent on mobile phones

The number of times Japanese users use apps far exceeds that of users in other countries and regions. Combined with the fact that they were less willing to install new apps and had a wider range of categories used per capita, Cheetah Global Think Tank concluded that Japan is already a highly mature Internet market.

VII. Analysis of key countries

In addition to Mexico mentioned in the previous list interpretation, Cheetah Global Think Tank further interprets other key countries worth paying attention to in 2016:

1. China

According to data from INFORMA and US CEMSUS, China has the largest mobile Internet population in the world and the fastest growth rate in the history of mobile Internet; it accounts for more than one-fifth of the world's active Android App users.

In this report, China only made it to the active list, and its performance in other areas was not outstanding, which precisely illustrates two issues:

(1) The development potential of China's mobile Internet is still very huge, and there is a vast blue ocean to explore;

(2) China cannot use Google Play, Facebook, and YouTube, but has developed its own App system with Chinese characteristics. Therefore, the development of Chinese Apps may be inconsistent with the existing standards of Cheetah Global Think Tank.

(3) As China's technological level develops, more and more Chinese companies are entering Silicon Valley and conquering the world. Cheetah Global Think Tank's expectations for China are not limited to being a country with the largest number of active Internet users, but rather a country that can rival the United States and Japan and even create a disruptive new Internet ecosystem.

2. India

(1) India has become a key market for global Internet companies, and its development speed has been astonishing. On the one hand, in terms of population, development, and geography, India is very similar to the former China. O2O, travel, e-commerce... almost every category that is popular in China has a corresponding app in India. Chinese Internet companies have also flocked to India in large numbers, and China's previous experience in Internet development can be used as a great reference. On the other hand, Indians can speak English, and the entry barriers for overseas giants such as WhatsApp and Facebook are very low. Indian netizens are also deeply influenced by Internet companies and netizens in developed countries.

(2) Although India has absorbed the essence of both aspects, its Internet development still has its own characteristics: for example, it directly skipped the PC stage and entered the mobile Internet. When network conditions were poor, it turned Bluetooth transmission tools into IM communication tools, etc.

(3) Judging from the activity, installation, and market diversification data provided by Cheetah Global Think Tank, India has reached its peak. If the infrastructure, which is widely criticized by investors, can further keep up with India's development pace, India will have the opportunity to surpass the Chinese Internet market in the near future.

3. Indonesia

(1) Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country and the largest economy in Southeast Asia. The average age of Internet users is young and their English proficiency rate is high. What is even more attractive to Internet companies is that netizens have good consumption habits and a high spending power. The progress of infrastructure in recent years has also become a guarantee for the development of the Internet.

(2) Indonesia is included in all the lists, proving that Indonesia, as an emerging country that investors focus on, has gradually prospered and has good user habits and quality. Cheetah Global Think Tank is optimistic about Indonesia's further development.

4. Brazil

(1) Brazil is the only country in Latin America that does not speak Spanish, yet it is also the largest in area and population. Economically speaking, Brazil's economy declined by 4.08% in 2015, but the Internet is still growing significantly. Most importantly, according to Yeahmobi data, Brazil is the largest mobile advertising market in Latin America. In Brazil, Google's display ads have covered 95% of Internet users, ranking first in the world.

(2) As the world's tenth largest e-commerce market, Brazil's e-commerce is also the focus of various Internet companies. At present, Brazil's payment methods and logistics development are still in a relatively primitive stage. If these problems are solved, the Brazilian market will usher in a greater explosion.

(3) 2016 is a critical year for Brazil. The Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Whether this can reverse its economic decline, strengthen grassroots infrastructure construction, and maintain social order is also related to whether Brazil's Internet can maintain its growth rate.

Part 3 Analysis of the Strength of Global Android APP & Game Publishers

Analysis of the Strength of Global Android APP Publishers

1. Google and Facebook become the absolute leaders in the global app market

(1) Google far exceeds other app publishers in terms of both the number of apps in the top 500 and market share, becoming the dominant app publisher. This means that nearly half of smartphone users use Google products every week.

(2) After Facebook acquired WhatsApp and Instagram, it now owns four of the world's most popular applications: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. This has further strengthened Facebook's position in the communications and social fields and further consolidated its influence among young users.

(3) In addition, Google and Facebook, which occupy the top two positions in the market, are both American companies, and the influence of their products is not limited to the domestic US market. Among the 51 countries and regions we studied, their flagship apps have ranked among the top in the App market share in most countries and regions, and have even formed a monopoly in some places.

2. China becomes the world’s largest app publisher

(1) In terms of the countries of origin of the developers on the list, there are 9 from China, 4 from the United States, 1 from Russia, and 1 from South Korea. Although China cannot yet compete with American developers in terms of overall market share, judging from the number of publishers on the list, China has become the world's number one app development country.

(2) However, unlike Google and Facebook, which have extensive global coverage, the reason why Chinese companies are able to enter the top of the list in large numbers is mostly due to the contribution of the Chinese domestic market. In this list, except for a few publishers such as Cheetah Mobile, the main users of other Chinese companies are still in China. The road to internationalization for Chinese companies is still long.

3. Search engines seize market opportunities

Interestingly, among the top 15 publishers, five started out as search products, such as Google in the United States, Baidu and Sogou in China, Yandex in Russia, and NAVER in South Korea. It seems that in the Internet era dominated by portals and search engines, these companies have accumulated a solid foundation, have high user stickiness, and have seized the initiative in market share. In the mobile Internet era, the App products they developed are also easily accepted by users.

2. Analysis of similarities and differences in publisher development strategies

If we compare the number of apps from each publisher that made it into the top 500 and the categories involved, we can find that each publisher has a different development strategy.

1. Focused

Among the companies on the list, 360, Sogou, Microsoft, and Yuntu Weidong, most of the apps they released are concentrated in one or two fields, with a relatively high degree of focus. For example, Sogou focuses on tools, Microsoft focuses on word processing efficiency, Yuntu Weidong focuses on image processing, and among the 8 shortlisted products of 360, 7 belong to the tool category and 1 belongs to the video product. On the one hand, this depends on the publisher's development strategy, but on the other hand it may also be limited by the publisher's own development capabilities.

2. Widespread attack

Although NAVER and YY have 5 to 7 apps respectively that are among the top 500 in the world, almost every app is distributed in a different category. Cheetah Global Think Tank believes that such publishers will be more powerful in the next step of market expansion. For example, NAVER's seven apps are distributed in six categories: books, animation, travel/local services, social, video, and entertainment. So although it does not rank among the top 10 in the world in terms of market share, it has entered the top of the developer comprehensive strength list due to this factor.

3. Analysis of key App publishers

1. Google

(1) Google's product matrix includes applications such as Youtube and Google Search, and 90% of Google users have installed Youtube. In its second quarter financial report of 2015, Google also made it clear that YouTube is the future development direction of Google and listed the video website business as its strategic focus. This change is related to Google's competitor Facebook.

(2) After seeing a sharp increase in video clicks in its news feed over the past few years, Facebook has been rumored to be ready to make a big push on its video portal and has been encouraging brand advertisers to shift their TV advertising budgets to the site because of its large user base.

2. Tencent

It is worth mentioning that in the "China APP & Game Overseas Ranking" released by Cheetah Global Think Tank (click here to read this report), although Tencent ranks only 8th among Chinese companies in overseas markets, when including the share of the Chinese market, its overall ranking ranks 3rd in the world and 1st among Chinese companies, which is enough to show the importance of the Chinese market to Tencent. Among Tencent's products, WeChat contributes the largest market share, followed closely by QQ.

3. Cheetah Mobile

Cheetah Mobile performs outstandingly in this list due to its strong advantages overseas. According to Cheetah Mobile's third quarter 2015 financial report, more than 74% of its users come from overseas markets, mainly Europe and the United States. Cheetah Mobile's main products are tool products, such as Cheetah Security Master, Battery Doctor, etc. In addition, the word processing software WPS is also well received.

4. NAVER

NAVER (네이버) is a Korean publisher that started out as a search engine. It is the leader in Korean search services, and mobile search products are also its largest contribution. In addition to search, it provides services such as Korean news, email, online maps (including street view maps), etc. It is the largest online service publisher in South Korea.

South Korea's total population is only 50.42 million (World Bank 2014 data), but Cheetah Global Think Tank believes that NAVER has been able to rank among the world's leading publishers thanks to the high penetration rate of smartphones in South Korea. According to the "Mobile Phone Trends in the First Half of 2015" report released by the KT Economic and Management Research Institute, South Korea's smartphone penetration rate is 83%, ranking fourth in the world.

5. Yandex

Yandex is one of the important Internet service providers in Russia. The services provided by Yandex include search, latest news, maps and encyclopedias, email, e-commerce, Internet advertising and other services. In 2015, Yandex established its China office, which is Yandex's first international commercial representative office in Asia and its second outside the CIS countries. This shows Yandex's ambition to go global, and it is also enough to show how much Yandex values ​​the Chinese market.

6. Alibaba and Alibaba UC

In App Insight's rankings, although UC is already a subsidiary of Alibaba, there is no business overlap in the applications involved and it is still listed as two companies. Alibaba's Taobao and Alipay Wallet are Alibaba's main sources of traffic, while Ali UC is entirely browser business.

4. App Developer Comprehensive Strength Ranking

In summary, App Insight and Cheetah Global Think Tank have made a comprehensive ranking of global app publishers by weighted calculation of indicators such as market share, number of apps released, and category coverage:

Analysis of the Strength of Global Android Mobile Game Publishers

1. Game publisher market share ranking

The mobile game market has been developing rapidly. The 2015 mobile game market report by Newzoo, a Dutch market research company, pointed out that the global mobile game market revenue exceeded US$30 billion in 2015, of which the Chinese market revenue has risen to the first place in the world, with total annual revenue reaching US$6.5 billion (equivalent to the revenue of the entire North American market), a year-on-year increase of 46.5%. From the perspective of active users, according to App Insight data, Cheetah Global Think Tank ranks global game publishers by market share as follows:

1. Fierce competition among game publishers

(1) Limited by the diversity of the mobile gaming population and the interests of mobile game players, it seems that no game publisher can have an absolute advantage in terms of market share, and the gap between the top five is not large. The competition between game publishers is more intense than that between App publishers.

(2) Some once-popular game publishers, such as Rovio Entertainment Ltd., the Finnish publisher of "Angry Birds", have seen their revenues decline significantly compared to their heyday, but they still have a large number of existing users, and with the launch of a free version in 2015, their market share is still relatively high.

2. European game publishers emerge as a new force, while Japanese games are no longer popular

In terms of country distribution, unlike the high concentration of App publishers, game publishers are relatively dispersed. However, we can still find that Europe has become a major center for game distribution in the world. Some mobile games that have taken the world by storm, such as Angry Birds, Clash of Clans, Plants vs. Zombies, etc., are all released by European game companies. Japanese game manufacturers, which occupied half of the world's game market in the era of the Famicom, have been unsatisfactory in terms of globalization in the field of mobile Internet, apart from consolidating their own local advantages. Only LINE, which is popular in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian markets, made the list.

2. Analysis of key game publishers

1. King

King was founded in Sweden in 2003 and is headquartered in London. It mainly focuses on casual social games, and "Candy Crush Saga" is its game with the highest market share. Although most of the games released by King are free, players must pay if they want to get additional gaming opportunities.

According to public data, King has a total of 340 million game players, but only 7.6 million of them are paying users, accounting for about 2.2%. In the third quarter of 2015, the company had a profit of $119 million. On February 24, 2016, Activision Blizzard announced the completion of its acquisition of King for US$5.9 billion (approximately RMB 38.5 billion).

2. Tencent Games

As the second-ranked publisher in the overall strength list, Tencent Games mainly produces Happy Candy Crush (a knowledge quiz game) and Happy Landlord (a card game), and all of its games are Chinese versions, indicating that its main players are in the Chinese-speaking region. It ranks second in the overall strength list (attached) thanks to the number of games it has released (15) and the diversity of their types (distributed in 7 categories).

3. Electronic Arts

Plants vs. Zombies is the company's most popular mobile game. The company has also acquired many well-known game brands through acquisitions, including Command & Conquer, Ultima, The Sims, Need for Speed, Madden NFL, Medal of Honor, SimCity 4, etc., which has established its strong position in the industry.

4. Supercell

Supercell, based in Finland, is currently the most profitable gaming company, and that's based on just two games: Hay Day and Clash of Clans. In 2015, "Clash of Clans" earned Supercell $1.64 billion in revenue, becoming the world's most profitable game. Not only that, Supercell's continuous innovation ability is also very outstanding. On January 4, 2016, Supercell started testing its new mobile game "Clash Royale" on iOS platforms in nine countries and regions including Canada. Within one day, it ranked second on the Canadian iOS free list and 15th on the revenue list, becoming Supercell's best performing work in the current testing period. Now that its official version has been released, I believe it will shake up the mobile gaming market.

5. Cheetah Games

Cheetah Mobile has secured a place in the publisher rankings thanks to the outstanding performance of the English version of "Piano Tiles 2". Since its release, "Piano Tiles 2" has long been ranked first on the Google Play game list, and won the Google Play Best Game of 2015 in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, and India.

3. Game publishers comprehensive strength list

App Insight and Cheetah Global Think Tank have made a comprehensive ranking of global game publishers by weighted calculation of indicators such as market share, number of games released, and category coverage:

Part 4 User Profiles in Different Countries

1. Where the online shopping addicts gather: Japan

When Chinese shopaholics are celebrating their success in the national carnival of "Double 11" and "6.18", we take it for granted that China is No. 1 in the world of e-commerce. However, looking at the global market, it is unexpected that Japan has already regarded this shopping enthusiasm as the norm, and ranks first in activity.

Nowadays, online shopping in the second-hand market has become a new way of playing for Japanese online shopping experts. Freema Appli second-hand goods trading platform and Rakuten Market are both second-hand e-commerce platforms. The reason why second-hand items e-commerce is booming in Japan is related to the social atmosphere that Japanese people like to buy second-hand items.

On the other hand, the foundation of second-hand trading apps is mutual trust. Japanese reviews are very real. There is no such thing as giving good reviews out of embarrassment or giving bad reviews maliciously. Moreover, "reviews cannot be negotiated and cannot be modified after being given."

Finally, Japanese housewives may be another factor contributing to the high level of e-commerce shopping activity in Japan.

2. Most talkative: Argentina

Looking at the global App market, among the top 10 most active countries in the communications category, Argentina ranks first with an activity rate of 74%.

In the communication category of the Argentine market, the activity rate of WhatsApp is as high as 98.49%, and it has become a necessity in daily communication. So what are the chatty Argentines talking about? After looking at the top 10 Facebook topics in the Argentine market in 2015, the situation is clear at a glance.

Among the top 10 topics, 4 are related to football and 5 are related to the president and the election. Interestingly, Argentines are not enthusiastic about Messi, Aguero and Di Maria who are very popular in the top five European leagues. Instead, Tevez, who returned to Boca Juniors, has become a hot topic. It seems that Argentines still love their own league more.

3. The country that never lets go of its cards: China

In the global APP market, the Chinese market is the most active in the card game category.

When it comes to card games, we have to mention poker and mahjong. Poker is popular all over the world, while mahjong has a strong Chinese characteristic.

But the reality is that the most popular game in the Chinese market is not Mahjong, but the Landlord series of games

4. Selfie-obsessed countries: Indonesia, Japan

Looking at the world and global markets, the Indonesian market and the Japanese market are the most active.

Among the top ten active countries and regions, 7 are from Asia.

The most active photography classification in Indonesia market are ASUS Gallery and ASUS Pixelmaster camera, two pre-installed APPs.

At the ZenFone smartphone launch conference in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2015, Asus CEO Shen Zhenlai revealed that since the launch of the ZenFone series of mobile phones in the Indonesian market in 2014, its cumulative sales have exceeded 5 million NT mark.

In addition, the two top APPs on the list, "Photo Grid" and "Camera 360", are also from Chinese companies. It seems that China's power not only sold its mobile phones to Indonesia, but also taught the style of selfies to Indonesia.

5. The country that loves gambling the most: Vietnam

There are not many countries that recognize gambling legally in the world, and Vietnam is one of them.

According to GP market data, gambling games are the most active in Vietnam.

In 2014, the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance formally proposed a draft that allows Vietnamese people over 21 years old to enter gambling business sites to gamble. Young people can't resist the temptation of gambling. Since you can't enter the casino, it's better to level up in a virtual casino.

The most popular gambling game in Vietnam is: Tiến lên – tien len This is a card gambling game with 4 people participating, which can be connected across platforms on PC, Pad and mobile phones. I believe that if I have more experience here, I will not lose too badly after entering the casino.

6. The country that loves to listen to music the most: the United States

Looking at the global market, music apps have the highest market activity in the United States. China-US, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico ranked in the top five.

According to the latest statistics from the American Recording Industry Association, the revenue of the US music streaming market in 2015 has exceeded that of CDs, while the revenue of the single download model has continued to decline.

In the American music and audio category, Pandora Radio still performs strongly. It is worth noting that spotify music, the third place. Spotify provides services: free and paid. Free users will be inserted into certain advertisements when using Spotify's service. Paid users have no ads and can have better sound quality, and can also have all the features when used on mobile devices. As of January 2015, Spotify had more than 60 million users, of which 15 million were paid users.

Part 5 App Rankings of Various Countries

Note: The main source of this list is Cheetah Cleaning Master, so Cheetah Cleaning Master is not included in the ranking list. This list is January 2016 data