According to the latest figures, China has the world’s largest population at 1.3 billion, and according to recent figures released by Baidu, China’s equivalent of Google, it seems that there are about 270 million active Android users in China as well, which basically means that about a fifth of China’s population uses Google’s operating system, and that is pretty damn impressive, especially when considering that it was only a couple of years ago where Android’s population in China was around 50 million.
Unfortunately it looks like maybe the market could be starting to become saturated as Baidu has also reported that the growth of Android appears to be slowing down at 13% in Q3 2013, compared to 55% in 2012, but at the same time is slightly better than the 10% we saw in Q2 2013. Other interesting numbers shows that 48% of Android sales are from first time smartphone owners, and that a big part of Android’s growth, 45%, are from rural areas and smaller cities. It’s interesting to note that due to China’s censorship policy, most, if not all, Android devices in China do not provide access to the Google Play store, but instead will rely on China equivalent options.
Android’s penetration into the Chinese market is also largely thanks to the variety of manufacturers in China, some of which we have heard before, such as Meizu, Huawei, ZTE, and Oppo, and there are also many which we have not.