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How to Submit to China's Top 15 Mobile App Stores

S.R. Schroeder // Last Updated: 27 September 2016

With about 450 million mobile users in China, there are around 30 app stores for Android and around 10 for iOS. However, most app stores are similar to each other, including the apps in each app store, the requirements and app submitting procedure. According to the statistics of TalkingData, the biggest app stores in China are app stores of Tencent, 360 and Baidu. In this article, we list 15 top app stores in China and introduce how to submit your app to each app store in detail.

1. 360 App Store

360 app store is one of the most popular and safest app stores in China. According to the statistics of TalkingData, the biggest independent mobile data service platform in China, the coverage and active rate of 360 app store is the TOP1 of China’s mobile app store. Compared to other mobile app stores, 360 App Store has the least ShanZhai app (ShanZhai app means an app that copy the functions and features of a popular app but with another brand).

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://dev.360.cn/, the 360 mobile apps developer platform.
  2. Click ‘Submit an app’.
  3. Sign in with your 360 account. (Create one if you don’t have.)
  4. Click the ‘Developer category’.
  5. Choose from personal developer or corporate developer and fill in the information according to the requirements.
  6. After you signed up successfully, enter the platform of submit an app or a game. Here I’ll use ‘submit an app’ as an example. Click ‘submit an app’ and then select the category of your app.
  7. Go to the page of submit APK, fill in the information according to the notes and then submit your app for review. After it’s reviewed successfully, you will be able to see it in the 360 app store!

2. Tencent App Store

Tencent app store is another popular mobile app store in China, only second to 360 App Store. On the aspect of O2O service, Tencent app store is the most intelligent and comprehensive one compared to other app stores in China. In the market share of android mobile app stores in 2016 Spring, the Tencent app store ranks first.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://open.qq.com/ First you need to sign in or sign up if you are new to this platform
  2. After signed in, click ‘submit mobile apps’. Then you would see a prompt asking you to transfer your account from Yingyongbao or not. Since the original app store Yingyongbao was changed into Tencent app store, you can transfer your developer account from Yingyongbao or you can just click ‘No, thanks’ if you don’t have an account in Yingyongbao. Here I’ll choose ‘No, thanks’.
  3. Fill in the information about your app and upload the APK file. Then click ‘submit the app’.
  4. Now you may see another prompt. If you have signed up in QQ Hulian before, you can import the information of your previous app from there. But if you don’t have an account of QQ Hulian or you know nothing about it, just click ‘No’.
  5. Then you need to provide some more information about your app, like uploading your logo, the screenshots and description of your app.
  6. Now we come to the last step. Just submit it for review and wait 24 hours for the result.

3. Baidu App Store

In recent years the Baidu App Store has also taken a great share in the mobile app store market. The apps listed in Baidu app store have considerable download numbers. The submitting process of this platform is quite easy and similar to others.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://app.baidu.com/ and sign in with your Baidu account.
  2. Click your username at the top right corner to verify your developer account.
  3. After the account is verified successfully, go to the ‘Management Center’ and submit your apps.
  4. Go to ‘App Management’, click ‘+ Create new app’, upload the APK file and fill in related information about your app.
  5. Fill in other information about your app and upload a screenshot of it.
  6. When all the above are done, click ‘Save’ and submit it for review. After your app passes the review, you’ll be able to see your app in Baidu app store.

4. Xiaomi App Store

Unlike the third-party mobile app store platform of 360, Tencent and Baidu which we mentioned earlier, Xiaomi app store is the official app store of Xiaomi phone. To submit apps in Xiaomi app store, you need to verify your phone number and the review system is quite strict which may take 2 to 3 workdays to review a new app.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://dev.xiaomi.com to sign up a Xiaomi account.
  2. Choose your developer category: personal developer or corporate developer. The category can’t be changed once confirmed.
  3. Fill in the information according to the notes and wait for the staff of Xiaomi app store to review it (usually it would take 1-3 workdays).
  4. You’ll receive a mail from Xiaomi informing you whether you’ve passed the review process or not. If you failed to pass it, just make changes according to the fail reason Xiaomi sent you. If you pass the review process, click ‘phone and tablets app’ to submit your app.
  5. Click ‘click to create’ or ‘create app’ to create a new app.
  6. Fill in the app name and an exclusive package name.
  7. After you created it successfully, you will get the AppID, AppKeyand AppSecret of your app. These information is required to access the Xiaomi Developer Service. If needed, you can choose to integrate related service before submitting your app.
  8. Click ‘release app’ to submit your APK files.
  9. Click ‘upload now’ to upload your app and fill in related information.
  10. Fill in other app-related information (there may be a lot of information to fill in so make a copy of it in a word file in case you have to fill in it again from scratch).
  11. Upload your perfect icon. Pay attention to the requirements of the icon.
  12. Lastly submit the app successfully, and wait for it to be reviewed (which may take 1-3 workdays).

5. Samsung App Store

Like Xiaomi App Store, Samsung App store is the official app store of Samsung phones. The review system of Samsung app store is even stricter than the Xiaomi App Store and it can take up to 7 days for an app to be reviewed. As a developer in Samsung app store, you have to use the Samsung SDK to submit the app.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://seller.samsungapps.com/login/signIn.as?returnURL=%2fmain%2fsellerMain.as&ssl=Y&ssoCheck=fail and sign in with your Samsung account.
  2. Choose to be a personal developer or corporate developer according to your needs. Here we’ll use corporate developer as an example.
  3. Fill in the basic information according to the notes and verify your email address.
  4. After signing in, click ‘apply to be a business seller’ and then fill in your account information. You’ll receive an email after you passed the review.
  5. Now we can add a new app. Select the category and default language of your app.
  6. Similar to other app stores, fill in the information related to the app.
  7. Confirm all the information is right, then submit the app and wait for it to be reviewed.

6. Wandoujia

Wandoujia is another popular mobile app store in China. The applying process is much simpler than the previous ones. Different to others, you can submit your app to apply to be a premium app, which is another applying process independent with the regular applying process. After your app was verified as a premium app, an icon of Chinese ‘优’ (which means premium) will be attached to your app and it can give the users a feeling of safety, authority and updates.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://developer.wandoujia.com/ and click ‘submit app’.
  2. Click ‘add an app’ and log in with your Wandoujia account.
  3. Upload your APK files.
  4. After uploading the APK files, fill in the information related to your app and submit it for review.
  5. You can see if your app is still in review or has been released in the ‘app’ tab.

7. PP app store

PP app store is a much more comprehensive one compared to other app stores. It provides apps on both Android and IOS platforms. But currently it has stopped the service of submitting IOS apps. So we can only submit Android apps on this platform. The applying process is similar to other app stores.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://dev.pp.cn/ and sign in with your accounts.
  2. Click ‘Android Management’ tab at the top of the screen.
  3. Choose to be a personal developer or corporate developer. Here I'll choose personal developer as an example.
  4. Fill in your personal information according to the notes.
  5. Upload APK files and fill in app-related information.
  6. Upload screenshots of the app and certification files like software copyright.
  7. Wait 24 hours for the app to be reviewed and 30 minutes for your app displaying in the app store.

8. Hiapk

Hiapk is also a popular platform for people to download android apps. The review system of Hiapk is not so strict. They usually approve it in 1-2 days.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://dev.apk.hiapk.com/login and click the ‘join us now’ button at the right side of the page.
  2. Click ‘developer’ to enter the page of ‘developer center’ (you can also go to that page from the ‘developer port’ button at the bottom of the page).
  3. Click ‘release app’ button, and upload your APK file, screenshots of your app (2-5 pictures, less than 200K in size, JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP are allowed).
  4. Add your app information, like the name, icon, description.
  5. Submit your app for review which would take around 2 days. If the app failed the review procedure, you’ll receive an email from Hiapk telling you to revise it.

9. Anzhi

Anzhi is another app store specializing in Android apps. The submitting process is quite easy and it usually take 1-3 days for the staff of Anzhi to review your apps.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://dev.anzhi.com and sign in with your account.
  2. Select from creating an application or a game, then upload your APK files.
  3. Fill in related information about you and your app.
  4. Submit your app for review. In the application list of ‘my application’, you can see the status of your app is ‘in review’.

10. Appchina

Appchina is the first Android app store in China that provides compensation if the users lost money due to the virus in the app. There are more than 50,000 apps in the app store and daily downloads surpasses 4 million times.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://dev.appchina.com/market/dev/index.action and sign up a new account if you don’t have one yet.
  2. Fill in the name and description of the app and upload the screenshots as well as APK files. This can be done in minutes.
  3. Submit your app for review which would take 1-3 workdays. After your app passed the review, it should appear in the ‘new apps’ part of the app store.

11. Huawei App Store

Huawei app store is the official app store for the Huawei phone. The review team monitors more than 1,000 apps and the content operation team give a professional report and scores before recommending an app. The defining feature of this app store is that every app has been reviewed both by the system and the human staff, and it aims to be the safest app store in China. The review period is a bit longer and may take 3-5 days.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://developer.huawei.com/en/consumer/http://app.hicloud.com/ and sign in with your Huawei account from the top right corner of the site.
  2. Click ‘create an app’ button, or you can go from ‘member center’ to the app management page.
  3. Fill in the app name, description and upload your logo as well as APK file. Click ‘save’ button when you finish it.
  4. In the application lists page, click ‘submit for review’.
  5. Click the icon of ‘Huawei app store’ to check the review status of your app.

12. Dangle

Dangle is a platform specializing in mobile games on both Android and iOS. With 50 million android users, it has daily app downloads of 8 million times, and 600,000 downloads for iOS. The submit process of Dangle is a bit different from other app stores. I’ll introduce it for Android apps and iOS apps respectively.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Android apps
    • Requirements for the app:
      • No quality issue; no any guidance to pay; no advertising; no integral wall; no app recommendation; no background push and no charge or recharge; no unauthorized fee deduction or automatically text messages sending
      • The app can be installed with third-party tools and can be run successfully.
      • The quality of the app must be good.
      • Marketing apps (like those recommending game software, shopping) should not be submitted.
      • Apps can’t be used independently should not be submitted.
    • Steps to submit apps:
      • Download and fill in the app submitting templates here. Fill in it and send it to androidapp@downjoy.com
      • Wait for it to be reviewed.
  2. iOS apps
    • Requirements for free app:
      • iTunes address;
      • Add Dangle advertisement: 当乐网iPhone游戏门户 (ios.d.cn):最好、最热门的应用游戏软件推广! (Dangle iPhone game site(ios.d.cn): the best and most popular place for game application promotion);
      • Add the friend chain on the home page of official site: Dangle iPhone game site, friend chain address ios.d.cn.
      • The app can be released in one day after the above procedures are completed.
      • Send emails to ios@downjoy.com and specify ‘free app’ in the title.
    • Requirements for jailbreak app:
      • iTunes address, ipa file of the app; provide ipa file, app category, description, supported devices, language, publisher name, file size, logo and screenshots if there are no iTunes address available.
      • The home screen of the app must be Dangle game center.
      • Add Dangle advertisement: 当乐网iPhone游戏门户 (ios.d.cn):最好、最热门的应用游戏软件推广! (Dangle iPhone game site(ios.d.cn): the best and most popular place for game application promotion);
      • Add the friend chain on the home page of official site: Dangle iPhone game site, friend chain address ios.d.cn.
      • Send emails to ios@downjoy.com

13. Gfan App Store

Gfan app store is one of the earliest and biggest android app store in China. There are more than 400,000 Android apps and games in the store. The app submitting process of Gfan app store is quite easy and similar to others.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://apk.gfan.com/Aspx/DevApp/RegDev_Person.aspx and sign up with your Gfan account.
  2. Click ‘create an app’ and upload your APK file.
  3. Fill in information related to your app.
  4. Upload screenshots of the app (3-5 pictures).
  5. Wait for the app to be reviewed.

14. 91 Zhushoue

91 Zhushou is also one of the most popular app stores among smart phone users, and the only content sharing platform crossing terminal devices and platforms. It provides apps in both Android and iOS platform. The various versions are compatible with Android, iPhone (jailbreak), PC, iPad (jailbreak) and free version (no jailbreak version). The app submission steps are similar to other app stores.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://market.sj.91.com/Default.aspx and sign up for a 91 account.
  2. After signed in, click the ‘submit app’ button at the top right corner of the site.
  3. To submit an app, you first need to pass the identity information verification process. After that, click ‘application management’ and then click ‘submit an app’.
  4. Fill in the app-related information, upload the APK file, logo and screenshots of the app.
  5. Submit all the information for review.

15. Nduo App Store

Nduo app store is an android app store aimed to provide a stable and harmonious platform for Android users. There are more than 25,000 apps in this app store. The app submitting process is easy and the whole review period would not surpass 3 days.

Steps to submit apps:

  1. Go to http://www.nduoa.com/signup and sign up an Nduo account.
  2. After signed in, go to http://www.nduoa.com/developer and click ‘I am an APP developer’ in the middle of the site.
  3. Fill in the information about you according to the notes.
  4. Upload your APK file.
  5. Fill in the basic information about the app and submit it for review.
  6. If your app passes review, you would be able to see it in the app store, or you need to modify it according to the instructions given by Nduo app store.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

S.R.
Schroeder

Founder of Seirim, Stephen focuses on the art and science of web design, usability and advancements in web development tech to help keep driving Seirim's projects and abilities forward.

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