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App choice is a matter of gender
By Zhu Shenshen |
April 7, 2013, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINESE young men like playing adventure games, chess and listening to music on their mobile phones and tablet computers, while young women prefer shopping and apps for editing self-portrait photographs.
These are among the findings of a recent survey by Beijing-based mobile industry market research firm Umeng, to discover the habits of China's more than one billion mobile users.
Umeng's 2012 Chinese mobile user behavior report also found that the daily peak times of social network activity came at noon and midnight and that people were spending more time watching video on mobile devices - from nine minutes in 2011 to 31 minutes last year each day on average. The jailbreaking ratio for iPhones and iPads decreased in China, indicating people's willingness to pay for apps.
By the end of 2012, there were more than 245 million smartphones in China - 160 million with the Google-developed Android system and 85 million using Apple's iOS system, according to Umeng. China is expected to sell more than 320 million phones in 2013, most will be smartphones, according to China Unicom.
In the tablet computer market, Apple expanded its market share by four percentage points to 83 percent in the fourth quarter, with debuts of the iPad Mini and iPad 4.
In the domestic Android market, Samsung, HTC, Lenovo, and Huawei were the leading brands, the survey found.
Love of games
Gender difference showed in smartphone choice, with women more likely to opt for an iPhone.
Among all Android phones in China, more than 55.3 percent are male users. In the Apple iOS segment, the ratio is almost half-to-half (50.1 percent male users choose iPhone).
The survey, that covered 100,000 apps available in China, found that music and video applications are favorites with male users.
Women, on the other hand, favor shopping - 70 percent of e-commerce apps are used by females - and picture editing applications.
The sexes were united in their love of games on iPhone or Android phones, though divided on the kinds they liked.
Males like adventure, action and chess and poker games while females like casual games, which often take short time with simple processes, the survey found.
Mothers were more likely to opt for educational, family and children's games, according to the research.
Social functions
Unsurprisingly, social media applications, including Sina Weibo and Tencent Weixin, are extremely popular with users.
According to Umeng's report, applications with social functions are used 3.5 times more frequently than those without sharing buttons.
The peak times for sharing favorite pictures, music and movies with family and friends are noon and midnight, the survey found.
White collar workers like sharing around 9am, 2pm and 8pm - coinciding with starting work, after lunch and after dinner.
For student users, the peak time includes 1pm, 6pm and 8pm, when they don't have classes.
Paid applications
Though still in limited volumes, Chinese users started to pay for mobile applications, whether they were paid applications or charging users for equipment or services through in-application purchase.
The ratio of jailbreaking iOS devices, which don't bring developers any income, dropped from 38 percent in September to 32 percent in February, according to Umeng.
The revenue of per download iOS application in China was 16 US cents - still lagging behind the world's average level of 41 cents.
China ranked 11th position, following top countries of Japan with US$1.41, Australia with US$0.76 and South Korea's US$0.64, according to App Annie, another Beijing-based market research firm.
These are among the findings of a recent survey by Beijing-based mobile industry market research firm Umeng, to discover the habits of China's more than one billion mobile users.
Umeng's 2012 Chinese mobile user behavior report also found that the daily peak times of social network activity came at noon and midnight and that people were spending more time watching video on mobile devices - from nine minutes in 2011 to 31 minutes last year each day on average. The jailbreaking ratio for iPhones and iPads decreased in China, indicating people's willingness to pay for apps.
By the end of 2012, there were more than 245 million smartphones in China - 160 million with the Google-developed Android system and 85 million using Apple's iOS system, according to Umeng. China is expected to sell more than 320 million phones in 2013, most will be smartphones, according to China Unicom.
In the tablet computer market, Apple expanded its market share by four percentage points to 83 percent in the fourth quarter, with debuts of the iPad Mini and iPad 4.
In the domestic Android market, Samsung, HTC, Lenovo, and Huawei were the leading brands, the survey found.
Love of games
Gender difference showed in smartphone choice, with women more likely to opt for an iPhone.
Among all Android phones in China, more than 55.3 percent are male users. In the Apple iOS segment, the ratio is almost half-to-half (50.1 percent male users choose iPhone).
The survey, that covered 100,000 apps available in China, found that music and video applications are favorites with male users.
Women, on the other hand, favor shopping - 70 percent of e-commerce apps are used by females - and picture editing applications.
The sexes were united in their love of games on iPhone or Android phones, though divided on the kinds they liked.
Males like adventure, action and chess and poker games while females like casual games, which often take short time with simple processes, the survey found.
Mothers were more likely to opt for educational, family and children's games, according to the research.
Social functions
Unsurprisingly, social media applications, including Sina Weibo and Tencent Weixin, are extremely popular with users.
According to Umeng's report, applications with social functions are used 3.5 times more frequently than those without sharing buttons.
The peak times for sharing favorite pictures, music and movies with family and friends are noon and midnight, the survey found.
White collar workers like sharing around 9am, 2pm and 8pm - coinciding with starting work, after lunch and after dinner.
For student users, the peak time includes 1pm, 6pm and 8pm, when they don't have classes.
Paid applications
Though still in limited volumes, Chinese users started to pay for mobile applications, whether they were paid applications or charging users for equipment or services through in-application purchase.
The ratio of jailbreaking iOS devices, which don't bring developers any income, dropped from 38 percent in September to 32 percent in February, according to Umeng.
The revenue of per download iOS application in China was 16 US cents - still lagging behind the world's average level of 41 cents.
China ranked 11th position, following top countries of Japan with US$1.41, Australia with US$0.76 and South Korea's US$0.64, according to App Annie, another Beijing-based market research firm.
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