Chinese iOS developers have earned 25% of Apple's pay outs since the App Store launch

Apple CEO Tim Cook happens to be in China this weekend and on Sunday he gave a speech at an event held by the Cybersecurity Administration of China. The latter is a regulatory agency that handles internet regulation in the country. During his talk, Cook mentioned that 1.8 million developers in China are writing apps for iOS. Thus far, since the launch of the App Store, they have earned 112 billion yuan, which is the equivalent of $16.93 billion USD.

The executive stated earlier this year that Apple has paid developers $70 billion globally for their share of app sales since the App Store opened in 2008. The portion of that total paid to Chinese developers amounts to nearly 25% of the total, indicating that they are responsible by nearly $1 out of every $4 that Apple pays to developers for their share of revenue derived from paid apps.

China is Apple's third largest market for overall company sales, although the trend has been down. Domestic manufacturers like Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi have been taking business and market share away from the iPhone by selling models with high-end specs at more affordable prices. The U.S. company is hoping to pick up some ground with strong sales in China of the Apple iPhone 8, Apple iPhone 8 Plus and Apple iPhone X.

For the the quarter that ended this past September, Apple shipped 11 million iPhone units in China, up 38% from the 8 million it delivered during the same quarter last year. The hike in shipments helped Apple break a streak of 6 consecutive quarters with lower year-over-year iPhone deliveries.

source: Reuters