Mobile app stores see explosive growth in China

Beijing (CNS) – The rapid development of mobile internet services has been accompanied by the explosive growth in China's application stores in 2011. China has become the second largest application market in the world, according to an official source.

Globally, mobile application stores (MAS) are the main purveyors of mobile internet services, said Chen Jiachun, a deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, at a press conference on March 18. At present, there are over 160 MAS businesses, and the largest one owns half a million applications, which have been downloaded 25 billion times.

Chen confirmed China was home to 356 million web users in 2011, 17.5 percent more than 2010. Finally 3G web networks now cover the entire country, and its users have reached 135 million.

The ministry will protect the privacy of web users with measures that maintain a secure and healthy internet environment, said Chen.