Asia rules the global app economy, and India is its rising star

An image from India’s 2010 robot movie Enthiran.

Move over, America. The future of the app economy lies firmly in the hands of Asian countries.

As of 2016, US smartphone users are no longer the ones spending the most money on iPhone apps – it’s the Chinese.

The US also doesn’t contribute the most Play Store app downloads anymore – that’s India now. Indian Android users also spend more time using apps than their US counterparts.

China retains its position as top iPhone app downloader, while Japan still spends most money on Android apps.

Each of App Annie’s four major categories is now dominated by an Asian country. Image Source: App Annie.

These findings come from App Annie’s just released 2016 Retrospective report.

Sheer force of numbers

This development is somewhat inevitable due to China’s and India’s massive populations: more smartphone users mean more downloads and more revenue opportunities.

China’s and India’s lead over the US will likely grow even further.

At 599 million, the number of Chinese mobile internet users is higher than that of the US and India combined. India’s is significantly higher than the US’. Image: Tech in Asia. Data: We are Social.

When will we see India app revenue rise?

The question is, when will India’s surge in downloads and time spent in apps lead to better monetization opportunities for app creators?

It took Chinese iPhone users a mere two years to graduate from being top downloaders to top money spenders in apps. (China is also a major global spender on Android apps, but because App Annie only tracks app activity through Google’s Play store, which is unavailable in China, these numbers don’t show in the report.)

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