BEIJING, May 8, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new survey conducted among mobile users in China reveals who is buying mobile apps, user preferences for iOS or Android, and user tolerance for ads appearing in their apps. A wide range of revealing data points about today's typical mobile user in China are explored in a new study by Guohe, a mobile advertising management platform, Mobile Advertising: Six Key Trends in 2012 – How marketers can best utilize mobile advertising as part of an integrated digital strategy in China.
Guohe surveyed 600 users of mobile phones including Apple, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Sony, Ericsson, and others. 54% of users interviewed had Android phones, and 39% had jailbroken phones.
The survey showed that users were most accepting of ads within news apps and least tolerant of them in apps such as photography, graphics, or even location and map apps. Gaming as a category is a hit with both iOS and Android users and works well for advertisers choosing to reach users through gaming apps where the study showed a significantly higher click-through rate.
iPhones tend to be more expensive than their Android counterparts in China, so it follows that more affluent city dwellers, entrepreneurs, businesspeople, and fashion-conscious users buy iPhones and gravitate toward game, utility, and shopping apps. On the other hand, Android users are more into reading apps.
According to Guohe, a greater percentage of China's iOS users spend more money on apps than do Android users, possibly because of Apple's early willingness to accept China's RMB currency as payment. In fact, only 23% of the study's Android users ever purchased any apps, though they've likely downloaded plenty of free apps from over 100 different third party app stores for Android in China, mostly offering them for free. About 25% of iPhone users surveyed prefer paid apps that are ad-free.
Conversely, only 13% of Android users would rather buy an app that is ad-free rather than get a free app monetized by inserted ads. Many people in China choose to buy Android phones in the first place because free apps are more plentiful than for iPhones. In addition to the many independent Android app resources, mobile device makers like HTC and mobile service providers like China Mobile also have their own app stores pre-installed on selected mobile devices.
Generally, though, consumer attention on mobile platforms is far from being fully utilized, particularly in China. "2012 will be the tipping point for everything mobile, as we see proliferation of high quality mobile apps developed for the China market, and faster adoption of 3G networks. And we are working hard on making brand contents specifically tailored for the mobile consumer." said Neo Zhang, co-founder of Guohe Ad.
The full report, "Mobile Advertising: Six Key Trends in 2012" may be downloaded at http://bit.ly/y3YVCc
The infographic may be downloaded in high resolution here: http://bit.ly/IKa7Rb
About Guohe
Guohe (guohead.com) is a leading mobile advertising management platform in China dedicated to helping developers realize business value for their apps and provide advertisers with mobile ad planning, analysis and optimization services. Guohe has integrated 15 mainstream advertising networks both inside and outside China and concentrates on providing premium advertising optimization and management services.
Guohe has won recognition from prominent experts within the industry and has been adopted by many of the elite developers in China since it was founded at the end of 2010. Guohe has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei. Guohe was awarded "Best Mobile Ad Platform" at the end of 2011 by Sohu IT, and nominated for ChinaMode's "Award for Most Attended Start-ups" and Business Value magazine's "Award Internet Innovation in China".
NOTE: The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Guohe is solely responsible for the contents of this release and the study, Mobile Advertising: Six Key Trends in 2012 – How marketers can best utilize mobile advertising as part of an integrated digital strategy in China.
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