Written by iPhone Localizer; Edited by iPhonAsia.

1 China App Platforms

1.1 Introduction

After a major telecom industry restructuring in China, there are now three mobile carriers – China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom.

By August 2009, the total mobile phone user base in China reached an amazing 710.5 million subscribers. China is by far the largest mobile market in the world, some 2.62 times greater than the US market.

In the wake of Apple’s tremendous App Store success (about 100,000 apps as of Nov. 2009), all of China’s carriers have rushed to build their own proprietary mobile application (app store) platforms:

China Mobile: Mobile Market
China Unicom: WO Store
China Telecom: eSurfing Space

The three app stores above are “localized” for China. Apple too has a China version of its App Store (In iTunes, scroll to the bottom right and click on the flag icon, then select the China icon).

Adding Apple’s China App Store into the mix, there are now ‘3+1’ China “localized” app platform choices for developers. The situation may change once the relationship between the WO Store and Apple’s China App Store is fully disclosed. There may be some integration and synergy between WO and Apple’s China App Store.

1.2 How to make money on 'Mobile Market' (China Mobile)

Mobile Market (MM) is a platform for mobile apps and mobile digital products, serving more than 500 million mobile phone users. MM is the first app platform run by a mobile carrier.

MM has three categories for mobile consumers:

Software (191 apps*)
Games (438 apps/games*)
Themes (1054 apps*)

* MM content as of Oct. 12, 2009

Before downloading an app, the consumer must select their mobile phone model type. MM currently supports 9 model categories: OPhone (appx. 10 phones planned by end of 2010 supporting China Mobile’s Android-based OS dubbed “OPhone”), Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG, Lenovo, Dopod, and Dell.

For developers, MM provides the China Mobile Developer Network (CMDN), which has all you need from downloading SDKs to uploading apps. CMDN includes SDKs download and instructions for Ophone, JIL Widget, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Java ME, WindowsCE, M8, and LARENA.

The steps for Chinese developers uploading apps are:

Registering to this developer network. Individuals and enterprises are both welcome.
Publishing mobile software, games, and themes.
Professional testing and certification, provided by professional testing labs.
Cooperation agreement signing, for mutual interests of partners.
Starting selling to 500 million customers through multi-channel exposure.
Getting monthly payment, developers receive 70% of sales revenues.

Key points:

Chinese developers have two ways to cooperate with MM:

Option 1: An individual developer can sign a cooperate agreement with a China Mobile entrusted third party – Aspire Technologies (Shenzhen) Ltd. – and then upload and sell his/her apps.

Option 2: An independent business entity can sign a cooperation agreement with China Mobile to become one of the third-party application providers to upload and sell apps on MM. (The agreement for option 2 is not out yet as China Mobile is primarily supporting individual developers.)
Foreign developers (individuals or companies) have three ways to sell apps on MM:

Option 1: Go through a Chinese individual who can sign agreement with Aspire and handle uploading process.

Option 2: Entrust a third-party company in China as their application provider to cooperate with Mobile Market.

Option 3: Go through a service provider outside of China like iPhone Localizer who has China counterpart to do all these. In other words, you cannot directly upload your apps onto MM for sale to the public. Rather you will need to go through a Chinese person/company, or an entity with China connections.
From the date of upload, it takes about 2 weeks to 1 month for an app to go on sale. There are two steps: first is the testing period, which takes 4 to 7 business days; second is the approval period. For example, if you enter the approval period before 5th of the month, the app will go on sale on or about 16th; if you enter the approval period between 5th and 20th, then the app will go on sale on or about the 1st of the following month. The approval process will involve a vetting and certification of two things: one is the cooperation paperwork (ID, bank account, agreement, etc.); the other, of course, is the review and approval of the app itself.
It should be noted that MM has started ‘paid apps’ phase. Developers can set (request) their own app price within price ranges set by China Mobile. China Mobile will confirm the price.
The monthly payment to developers will be made approximately 60 days following an app sale. (e.g. sales in September will be paid in the November billing circle; sales in October will be paid in the December billing circle).
Chinese developers will need to pay income taxes in China after receiving payments.

1.3 How to make money on 'WO Store' (China Unicom) and ‘China App Store’ (Apple)

This section will have to wait until the relationship between ‘WO Store’ and ‘China App Store’ becomes clear.

China Unicom has started selling iPhone on October 30, 2009.

It’s a known fact that China Unicom has bought 5 million iPhones from Apple, plus the existing 2 million jailbreak iPhones, China will have a 7 million iPhone users market in the coming year.

1.4 How to make money on 'eSurfing Space Application Store' (China Telecom)

Coming very soon…

About iPhone Localizer: iPhone Localizer helps clients bring their smart-phone apps to the world. We develop multi-lingual iPhone apps for 77 App Store distributions. We localize iPhone apps onto all 31 iPhone supported languages, with the focus on Asian languages. We port iPhone apps onto China’s local platforms including 'Mobile Market' (China Mobile), 'WO Store' (China Unicom), and 'eSurfing Space' (China Telecom). In addition to app development, localization, and porting, we provide in-country support worldwide and promotion of apps in Asian countries. For corporations, we provide solutions leveraging smart-phone app platforms in China. Contact info@iPhoneLocalizer.com for more details.