The App Store is the most profitable mobile market in the world, but Google Play is catching up with it, thanks to the growing popularity of Android in the markets of Japan and South Korea.
According to App Annie, Google Play revenue grew by 311% in 2012. During the same time, App Store revenue increased by 12.9%.
In October alone, Google Play grew by 17.9%, while App Store figures, on the contrary, fell by 0.7%.
But the number of downloads from the iOS market is still higher than from Google Play. The official Android store, however, is also shortening the distance with its competitor here. Over the past five months, the total number of free downloads has increased in the App Store by only 3.3%, while their growth in Google Play was 48% over the same period.
According to App Annie, the main driver of Google Play in terms of profit growth and the number of installations is the growing popularity of the search company’s platform in Asian markets like Japan and South Korea.
In October, Japan became the most profitable Google Play market. This region accounts for 29% of all market profits. For the first time, the US market was shifted to second place in terms of income. The South Korean market is in third place in terms of profit.
It is important that Japan’s revenues on Google Play have increased 10 times over the current calendar year!
The situation on the App Store is noticeably different. The USA brings the most money to Apple. Japan is in second place in terms of income, and the UK is in third place, which, by the way, we wrote about yesterday.
Android’s popularity has grown not only among Asian users, but also among developers and publishers from the East. There are eight Asian companies in the top ten most profitable Google Play companies. In the first place DeNA, which published the main box office hit of this year – Rage of Bahamut. Then, with a minimal margin, there is the Japanese COLOPL, GungHo Online, GREE, and NAVER closes the top five. On iOS, there are four companies from Japan in the top ten.
Roughly the same is the case with the highest-grossing Google Play games: games from the Asia-Pacific region bring the most money. The most profitable project on the Android platform last October was Puzzles & Dragons from GungHo Online, the remaining nine positions also went to either Japanese or South Korean games.
On iOS, out of dozens of box-office world games, only two projects were made in the land of the rising sun: Puzzles & Dragons and King Arthur of 1 Million People.