Chinese apps gain increasing global influence, expand rapidly overseas

Apps developed by Chinese Internet companies have been expanding their presence in the overseas market in recent years. The percentage of apps developed by Chinese firms among the top 1,000 most downloaded apps globally increased from 8 percent in 2011 to 14 percent in the first half of 2021.

Photo shows a girl cosplayed as “Yun Jin,” a newly-unveiled character designed as a Peking Opera singer in the Chinese-made videogame Genshin Impact during an anime fair in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province. (Photo courtesy of miHoYo)

Recently, an aria clip for “Yun Jin,” a newly-unveiled character designed as a Peking Opera singer in the Chinese-made game Genshin Impact, has stirred the fervor of global gamers. As of Jan. 13, the aria clip had received over 9.4 million views and 2.1 million views on the game’s official Bilibili channel, a popular Chinese video-sharing platform, and its YouTube channel, respectively.

“That was so beautiful,” a YouTube user commented under the aria clip. “Traditional opera is harmoniously combined with modern music. Although I’m not Chinese, I listened to Chinese operas from a young age. I also have a thing for Chinese movies,” said another user.

Liu Wei, president of the videogame’s Shanghai-based developer miHoYo, owed the aria clip’s popularity among gamers at home and abroad to the combination of Chinese opera elements and new cultural elements.

The aria clip’s popularity reflects the success of Genshin Impact. Liu introduced that the game has made it into the top list of gaming apps in 68 countries and regions over the past year since its launch.

Liu attributed the videogame’s success to the integration of traditional Chinese culture and a fresh approach to showcasing Chinese culture. Although it’s challenging to create products that appeal to people from different regions and cultures, Liu believed that its quality content has the power to overcome any barriers and differences.

China’s self-developed videogames raked in more than $18 billion in sales revenues overseas last year, up about 16.6 percent year-on-year, according to the “China Game Industry Report 2021” that was jointly released by the Game Working Committee of China Association for Audio-Visual Communication (GPC) and the China Game Industry Research Institute.

Photo shows a poster of videogame Genshin Impact in Helsinki, capital of Finland. (Photo courtesy of miHoYo)

In addition to China-developed gaming apps, Chinese non-gaming apps have also made great strides in the overseas market last year. For example, TikTok, an app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., was the world’s most visited site on the Internet in 2021. As of September last year, the app’s monthly active global user base had exceeded 1 billion.

TikTok also launched TikTok Shopping, a suite of solutions, features and tools that give businesses the opportunity to tap into the power of commerce on the TikTok platform. Early access to TikTok Shopping has been granted to merchants in the UK.

In November last year, ByteDance launched an independent e-commerce app named “Fanno,” which aims to provide cost-effective products to global users.

For many Chinese enterprises, technological innovation is the key to their overseas success. “We have maintained a leading position in animation rendering in the gaming industry,” said Liu Wei, adding that Genshin Impact’s success demonstrates miHoYo’s technological competitiveness. So far, the company has set up research and development centers in several countries and regions to improve product quality and production efficiency.

Liu Xiangdong, a researcher with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said the new generation of information technologies, especially the mobile Internet, has enabled more Chinese apps to go global, which reflects China’s rising economic strength and vitality and overseas users’ acceptance of Chinese social media and gaming apps that integrate Chinese elements.

The researcher added that China’s favorable policies to encourage the development of the digital economy and global expansion of digital products create convenient conditions for Chinese Internet companies to continue going global.

To further increase their global influence, Chinese app developers need to upgrade their products and services while breaking through technological difficulties, Liu Xiangdong said.

China should also further integrate with international rules in the digital economy to help increase domestic companies’ competitiveness while rolling out more incentives to encourage them to develop apps that better meet the demands of local customers, the researcher noted.