At the end of October, the Apple App Store was officially launched in China with the operator Unicom selling the first iPhones. The App Store was however already accessible in China at the end of August, but lacking the Games category. After three weeks of iPhone sales in China, we decided to make an overview of the most popular content.

These are the 20 most popular paid applications, since the launch of the iPhone in China:

Most popular paid apps in Chinese App Store since iPhone launch

A few takes from this:

• Games are now supported in the Chinese Apple App Store
• Prices for paid content are in USD
• From the top 20, half of the applications are specifically aimed at Chinese users
• 9 out of 20 top applications are Games, compared to 11 out of 20 for the US App Store (see for more details on the US app store our latest report).

These are the 20 most popular free applications, since the launch of the iPhone in China:

Most popular free apps in Chinese App Store since iPhone launch

Compared to the most popular paid apps, a few things catch our attention:

• 13 out of 20 top titles are Games
• 8 of the top 20 applications are specifically aimed at Chinese users

As the Wall Street Journal reports, there are big opportunities for developers in the Chinese App Store. Especially if the billing methods, that are now limited to credit card improve, because credit cards are not common for Chinese consumers yet.

We will keep tracking the applications in the Apple App Store in China and will report whether it will continue to offer a large proportion of local content.