The number of apps available to Chinese tech users has fallen by 38.5% over the last three years, with the biggest drop coming this year due to the country’s clampdown on big tech and internet content, reports the South China Morning Post. The total number of apps in Chinese app stores fell to just 2.78 million by October of this year, down from 4.52 million at the end of 2018, according to a SCMP review of data compiled from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
The fall in the total number of apps is partly a sign of China’s maturing app market. WeChat, Tencent Holdings’ social network with 1.2 billion monthly active users globally, has dominated social media in China for years.
Leon Sun Qiyuan, an analyst at investment research firm EqualOcean, said China’s online service market of 1 billion users is no longer a greenfield up for grabs. “China’s internet industry has developed for so many years, and the days of tremendous growth are over,” he said.