Game Design Secrets

Understanding the Future of iOS Games in China: Overview and Advice from Yodo1’s Henry Fong

Chat with Henry Fong, founder and CEO of Yodo1 (www.yodo1.com), a Beijing-based company that has helped many leading Western game studios launch their mobile games in China, and you’ll realize just how different the market for iOS gaming is in that country. Different in every sense. Courtesy of a conversation with Fong, here’s some data from Spring 2012:

• By volume and free downloads, China is already the second largest market for iOS games in the world.

Assuming Apple maintains its market share in China, as we go into 2013, there could be about 80 million iOS owners in China alone.

• At the end of 2011, China had approximately 80 million smartphone owners, around 35–40 percent of which were iOS. By the end of 2012, that market should increase to 180–200 million.
• As of February 2012, monthly activations of iOS devices in China exceeded those in the United States.
• Up until January 2012, China Unicom, the second largest mobile carrier, was the sole provider of iOS devices to their subscribers. China Telecom, the third and smallest mobile carrier, announced that it would carry iOS devices that month. China Mobile, the country’s largest carrier by far, with more than 670 million subscribers, has yet to announce it will officially sell iOS devices, but already hosts more than 15 million gray market iOS devices on its network.
• Casual gamers will typically buy 1–2 iOS games every two weeks, ...