Apple apps saw a surge in their downloads in 2016. The increase is mainly caused by the increase in demand from China. The country is now believed to be the biggest market, in terms of revenue, for Apple's iOS App Store.

According to a report released by analytics firm App Annie, both major app stores viz. the ones run by Google and Apple saw their growth coming from Asia. Google Play Store received a boost from India, which surpassed the US and Brazil to hold the top position for app downloads. Google is banned from operating in China.

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The veracity of the finding has been doubted as the numbers in the case of Apple App Store do not match with the ones provided by the company. However, a spokesperson for App Annie said, "We are always confident with the data we release in our reports, attributing the estimates to a veritable degree to accuracy."

The report also suggests that owing to regulatory requirements, users in China tend to download their Android apps from marketplaces handled by local players such as Tencent and Baidu. Chinese users spent over $2.10 billion on downloading apps in the last quarter of 2016. The users in the US spent $1.5 billion during the same time period.

Local Chinese apps maintained their dominance as Tencent's QQ social network showed strong movements in the past year. Local gaming companies also fared well. It is likely that 50 percent of the growth in iOS App Store was attributed to China. Apple and Google earned $35 billion in revenue through their app stores.

Tagsapple, Google, App Store