The news is great. Last week it was announced by analytics outfit Flurry that China had surpassed the US in terms of iOS and Android device activation, and became the fastest growing smart device market worldwide.
But is China becoming the largest smartphone market a good enough reason for mobile game developers outside of the country to pay attention?
Lay of the land
Developers create games because it is fun, but they also need to make money. So the first question concerning China is whether there's money to be made in the market.
It's a common perception among western developers that low incomes combined with high levels of piracy mean it's difficult to generate serious amounts of revenue from China, despite its huge population.
Historical data from a closely related market - the Chinese online gaming - paints a different picture, however.
The following chart from an iResearch report about online gaming market shows a more than 10-fold total revenue growth (in RMB) between 2003 to 2008.
Similarly, by 2010 it was estimated that China accounted for a third of the sector's worldwide revenue.
There's no doubt, Chinese players are willing to pay for games or gaming-related content.
What mobile?
But is this relevant for the mobile gaming sector you ask?
According to a recent report released by China Game Industry Annual Conference, as of 2011, the Chinese mobile gaming is already worth $300 million, and growing at 86.8 percent per year.
And given the much faster adoption rate of smartphones comparing to that of the internet, I say the mobile gaming market is going to grow even faster than the online gaming market.
Show me the money
But let's talk specifics.
Top mobile developers are already generating serious revenue, especially from Apple's App Store.
Hoolai - a top Chinese mobile/social developer - has revealed that a #1 top grossing iOS game can generate more than $1 million a month.
As a mobile publisher with several games in China's top grossing chart (currently #4, #9, #29, #84), CocoaChina can also confirm that top 10 grossing apps will generate several hundreds of thousands dollars in monthly revenue.
(CocoaChina publishes mobile games under the PunchBox Studios brand.)
Global, local
So one last question - can western games be successful in China?
Again we look at history to find an answer.
During the boom of the online gaming sector, a significant percentage of Chinese technology IPOs were gaming companies. And a large number of these companies went public based on revenue earned from licensed foreign titles.
One notable example is Shanda, a game publisher from Shanghai with its flagship game Chuan Qi (The Legend of Mir 2), an MMORPG licensed from Korean developer WeMade Entertainment.
In its ninth year of operation (2009), it was revealed Legend of Mir 2 was still generating well over $20 million a month in China.
But why was it Legend of Mir 2, not Diablo - which many people argue is the better game and by which Legend of Mir was heavily inspired - that became a runaway success in China?
We believe that entering the market early and achieving first mover dominance of the MMORPG genre was one of the key reasons.
And it's that reason mobile game developers should care about the Chinese market, right now.
Lei Zhang is CocoaChina's US general manager, driving the company's cooperation with international developers.CocoaChina originated from an Apple-focused developer community.
In addition to hosting the largest mobile developer community in China, Chukong, the parent company of CocoaChina, is also a game publisher under the brand name PunchBox Studios, with more than 60 million installs across iOS and Android.
