Promoting App in China – What You Need to Know

Promoting App in China? With more than 950 million smart phone users, China represents an un-ignorable market for mobile app developers, and one that is certainly the most lucrative and biggest in the world.

Whether you are developing a gaming app, an educational app, an app for ecommerce or any other smart phone app – there is place for every type and every size of app on the shelves of the Chinese market.

However, whether your app succeeds in the app market is dependent on its design and more importantly how effectively you can promote it once it has been developed and ready for use.

There have been instances where talented app developers came up with seemingly perfect apps, but could not capture their niche market because of poor promotion efforts. On the other hand, there have been apps that although offered basic functionalities, did quite well in contrast just because the developers were able to promote them in an effective way.

So, let us ask you:

What strategy do you have in place to promote your app successfully in the Chinese market?

You might already have a really good promotion strategy in place, or you might have not come up with one yet, the tips we are going to share with you next are sure to help you out in either of the cases.

Promoting App in China: Choose an App Portal Best Suited for Your Needs

Well, if you are releasing your app for iOS then Apple Store is your obvious and only choice. However, if your app has been designed for android phones then you have multiple options in app portals to market your app on. In context of capturing the Chinese market, these are the most popular app portals:

• Baidu App Store
• Tencent App Gem
• Huawei App Store
• Xiaomi App Store
• Wandoujia
• Qihoo App Store

Each app portal offers unique set of advantages; choose the one that best suits your needs.

Include Social Media Sharing Option in Your App

In China, almost everyone owning a smartphone is an active user of social media, with Weibo and WeChat being the most popular platforms. Integrating a social share option in your app, thus enables you to market your app to a large audience. As more people would learn about your app, more people would download it.

Leverage the ‘Sponsored Post’ Feature in WeChat and Weibo

Both WeChat and Weibo allow you to advertise your app through sponsored post feature, whereby an influencer or a famous celebrity endorses your app on their own account. Imagine Jack Ma promoting your ecommerce app on his Weibo account and the traction your app is going to get because of that one post.

Team Up With Local App Publisher

If you are an off-shore app developing company with no presence in China, it would be wise to partner with a local app publisher during the release of your app. Chinese people are more likely to buy from a brand that they recognize and trust. Releasing an app in collaboration with a trusted local app publisher can help you get higher penetration in the market.

Looking for more tips to make your app a success in the Chinese market? Check out this helpful post on how your app stands to benefit from software localization.