China is no longer only a huge end-user market for applications. According to a U.S.-based IT industry research company, China overtook India in terms of software developers as of 2014, when 10 percent of the 18.5 million professional and amateur developers globally were from China.
Experts say the mobile internet boom and China's digitalization push have boosted the app-developer numbers significantly.
Apps developed in China are also increasingly popular among domestic and overseas users. Junk cleaning app, Clean Master, has over 400 million overseas users. Live streaming app Bigo Live, boasts 7 million monthly active users from Southeast Asian countries.
And the latest offbeat Chinese creation to make waves in the Western hemisphere is a free photo-editing app, Meitu, giving users the power to create idealized versions of themselves to share with others. In the U.S. and beyond, an increasing number of users are using the app to create intentionally over-the-top images.
