Chinese app developers come of age

Talented people take digital world by storm as flood of creativity creates worldwide demand for software

When around 2,000 enthusiastic Chinese app developers gathered for Google Inc's annual conference in Beijing in December, they didn't allow the subzero winter temperatures to chill their enthusiasm for the event.

Suitably impressed, Scott Beaumont, president of Google Greater China, told the large audience on Beijing Google Developer Day - the biggest such event in the Asia-Pacific region - that Google "is here to know what Chinese developers want".

The rapturous crowd cheered him on.

Google's internet search engine may have been out of the Chinese mainland since 2010, but Google, like other global tech giants such as Apple and Microsoft, has ambitious plans for the world's largest mobile internet market.

The California-based giant has launched a Chinese website for local app developers and promises help to take their products global.

The developments excite Yan Peng no end.

"Finally, it's here. This is the best Christmas gift for me. I couldn't wait to ask for a day off to celebrate this moment," the Shanghai-based app developer says.

Such gushing praise has been common among Chinese consumers at the launch of much-awaited gadgets like, say, the latest version of the iPhone. But China is no longer just a humongous end-user market.

Apps developed in China are increasingly popular among domestic and overseas users. For instance, Clean Master, a junk-cleaning app, has over 400 million overseas users. Bigo Live, a live-streaming app, boasts 7 million monthly active users from Southeast Asian countries, all of whom came on board within three months.

Apps developed in China abound these days. Call China an app-developer hub, if you will.

This new facet of China is not lost on the world's tech giants.

"China is now an indispensable part of the global developer community," says Ben Galbraith, head of product and developer relations at Google's developer product group. "Chinese developers are responsive to new technology and known for high efficiency."

The trend started a few years back. In 2014, China nosed ahead of India in software development. Out of 18.5 million professional and amateur software developers globally, China accounted for 10 percent, while India had 9.8 percent, according to International Data Corp, the US IT consultancy.

A picture of the current scene has yet to emerge, but it is reasonable to assume that the mobile internet boom and China's digitalization push will likely have boosted the app-developer numbers significantly, says Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner Inc, a US-based technology research and advisory company.

Sensing potential, Apple has decided to set up a research and development center in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, later this year.

The US tech giant's announcement came after it set up its first China R&D center in Beijing in September. The work is still on, with total cost expected to reach 300 million yuan ($44.6 million; 41 million euros; 35.1 million), including a staff of 500 employees.

Shenzhen, which is an innovation hub, already houses over 100,000 developers for Apple.

During his May visit to Beijing, Apple CEO Tim Cook held extensive meetings with local app developers. Apple also invested $1 billion last year in Chinese ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing.

"Chinese developers are already technologically strong, and Apple will offer more help on the marketing side to help them venture into overseas markets," Cook said at the time.

China remains key for Apple, despite tumbling iPhone sales. That's because the country beat the US to become the largest market for Apple's iOS app store last year, according to App Annie, an app-tracker.

In the third quarter of 2016, Chinese consumers spent $1.7 billion at the iOS app store, more than five times what they had spent just two years ago, App Annie said in an email.

Encouraged, Apple organized its first-ever app developer competition in China in October, to encourage university students to work on apps.

With spending rising and competition intensifying in the domestic market as a result, Chinese app developers are venturing abroad.

Outbound Chinese app-developers often start with utility apps like cache cleaners, anti-virus offerings and data transfer tools, before testing the waters in the content business, which ranges from social media, live streaming and mapping to mobile payment apps. Some have already had a good start, said Wei Fangdan, CEO of BaijingApp, an online community of more than 40,000 domestic app-developers who have global aspirations.

As of January 2016, they developed about 270,000 apps that were sold via Apple's iOS app store. By the end of May, the app developers earned more than $7 billion - and half of that came in the past 12 months, indicating strong growth momentum.

In the past two years, Chinese gaming and entertainment app developers saw a 150 percent jump in revenue from Google Play, Google said, without disclosing specific figures.

The United States, Japan and South Korea are the top three overseas markets for Chinese app developers. Emerging economies such as India, Mexico and Turkey are new growth drivers, according to App Annie.

Interestingly, Chinese app-developers are graduating to cutting-edge technologies like virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

Perfect World, a Chinese game developer, unveiled its first VR game Subnautica in March. The game enables consumers to be immersed in a virtual sea world and play with underwater creatures.

As of June 2016, the PC version of Subnautica generated more than $1 million in monthly sales. The firm is working on mobile virtual reality games.

"There is an abundance of breakthrough innovation coming from China versus the 'me too' technology we saw in the past," says Zack Weisfeld, general manager of Microsoft Global Accelerators.

In December, Microsoft said it would launch its mixed-reality headset HoloLens in China this year, so that more local developers can work on apps for the gadget.

"We believe China could be leading the world in terms of mixed reality. We are seeing more virtual reality activities here than in the United States," says Terry Myerson, executive vice-president of Microsoft's Windows and Devices Division.

Liu Zheng contributed to this story.

masi@chinadaily.com.cn

( China Daily European Weekly 01/13/2017 page27)