Apple App Store China Ecosystem Report: The market size has doubled over five years, reaching 4 trillion yuan in 2025.

On October 8 Beijing time, Apple released via its official channels a research report on China's App Store ecosystem co-authored by Ju Heng, associate professor at the College of Business of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Markus von Wartburg, economist at ANALYSYS International Consulting.

The report estimates that in 2025, this ecosystem generated approximately 4 trillion yuan in turnover and sales in the Chinese mainland, more than doubling from the nearly 2 trillion yuan recorded in 2020. In the transaction structure, physical goods and services account for roughly 90%; the overseas revenue of Chinese developers has risen to 52%.

This 4 trillion yuan figure is neither the revenue Apple earns from the App Store, nor the total transaction value completed by developers through Apple's payment system. The report counts a variety of economic activities facilitated by iOS apps, including purchases of physical goods and services, purchases of digital goods and services by users through apps, as well as in-app advertising revenue. The payment paths of different transactions and the applicable scope of commissions vary.

Physical Goods and Services Dominate the Transaction Volume

The report estimates that in 2025, the transaction value of physical goods and services facilitated by China's App Store ecosystem is approximately 3.7 trillion yuan, accounting for about 91% of the total; digital goods and services generate around 149 billion yuan, and in-app advertising revenue totals about 212 billion yuan. Among these, over 95% of the transaction value is not subject to any commission payable to Apple.

Among these, consumption activities such as e-commerce retail, food delivery, mobility and travel are important components of physical goods and services transactions. Consumers browse products, place orders or book services through apps, making apps a channel for merchants to reach users and process transactions. These consumption amounts are counted into the ecosystem transaction scale, but the payment may be completed through merchants or other payment channels, which is not directly regarded as Apple's in-app purchase cash flow.

The statistical scope of digital goods and services is not exactly equivalent to the transaction value of Apple's payment system. Digital services that users purchase through channels outside apps such as web pages and then use via iOS apps may also be included in relevant estimates.

Apps Developed by Chinese Developers Dominate Local Downloads and Revenue

The report shows that in 2025, apps developed by Chinese developers account for 93% of downloads on China's App Store, and 98% of local App Store revenue. This means that local app supply occupies a dominant position in both download volume and revenue dimensions.

The continuous expansion of the App Store ecosystem benefits from the steady growth of user scale. The report shows that in 2025, the average weekly number of visitors to China's App Store is 167 million, and the visitor scale provides a user base for app distribution.

In addition to transactions and revenue sharing, the report also sorts out the technology and education support system the platform provides for developers. At present, Apple has opened more than 250,000 APIs, covering graphics rendering, machine learning, health data, translation and other fields; the new version of Xcode already supports access to domestic third-party large AI models, helping developers quickly integrate AI capabilities into App products.

In terms of talent cultivation, the Mobile Application Innovation Competition has covered more than 1,200 universities across the country in the past ten years, with more than 40,000 students participating. In 2025, Apple joined hands with Zhejiang University to set up a mobile application incubation fund, providing full support for early-stage entrepreneurial students including technical training, product design, operation, and investment and financing docking. The Apple Developer Center in Shanghai continues to carry out online and offline technical salons. In 2025, the developer relations team conducted technical exchanges with more than 2,000 domestic development teams and over 18,000 developers, and opened accounts on WeChat and Bilibili to output development tutorials, popularizing programming and development capabilities for a broader group of learners.

Overseas Revenue Accounts for More Than Half

Overseas market is another major change disclosed in the report. In 2025, 76% of Chinese developers carry out business overseas, and the number of overseas downloads of Chinese apps reaches 3.8 billion times; overseas revenue accounts for 52% of the total revenue of Chinese developers. The report states that this proportion was 32% in 2020, an increase of 20 percentage points in five years.

These data reflect that the revenue sources of Chinese developers are no longer limited to the local market, and the cross-regional distribution of the app store provides a channel for them to reach overseas users.

In terms of small developers, the report states that from 2020 to 2025, the total revenue of Chinese small developers has more than doubled, and 75% of them have already carried out overseas business.

In terms of rate policy, in March 2026, Apple lowered the commission in China: the standard commission for digital goods and services was adjusted to 25%, and developers participating in the Small Business Program and the Mini Apps Partner Program can enjoy a preferential commission rate of 12%, further reducing the monetization cost of small and medium-sized developers.

Compared with the 30% standard commission in most overseas regions, the Chinese market has a lower rate benchmark. However, commissions only apply to digital transactions such as in-app purchases and paid downloads; revenue from physical e-commerce goods, food delivery and mobility, and in-app advertising is always excluded from the commission scope.

From the perspective of industry trends, Chinese developers have bid farewell to the simple copy model, and games, AI creative tools and productivity tools have become the new main force for going global. On the one hand, there are heavyweight works from large manufacturers, on the other hand, a large number of small and medium-sized independent teams have opened up overseas niche markets through differentiated tool products.

This article is from "Tencent Tech", author: Wu Bin, editor: Xu Qingyang, published with authorization by 36Kr.