Chinese winner an example of growing popularity

The person who won Apple's contest to be the downloader of the 25th billionth app from the App Store was a Chinese woman named Fu Chunli from Qingdao, reports Chinese Mac site MICgadget. She became the lucky winner by downloading a free version of the Disney game Where's My Water? and received as a reward an iTunes gift card worth $10,000 US. The company invited Fu to the Beijing store to collect her prize.

While there, she was surrounded by journalists and photographers and was given a tour of the store and demonstrations of various Apple products by the staff. Fu was not familiar with most Apple products, having only bought the iPhone a month before the contest and was still learning the basics of the App Store. Fu was unaware of the competition until she was contacted by Apple, and thought it was a hoax at first.

The Chinese media have since dubbed Fu the "Apple Girl" from China, being the first Chinese resident to win an Apple contest. The company has previously given $10,000 iTunes gift cards to those who are download or buy certain "milestone" apps or hardware, but has rarely courted as much publicity. This is likely to capitalize on the fact that the winner was a Chinese citizen, a market Apple expects to expand greatly and which more than doubled in 2011 alone, now making up almost 16 percent of Apple's revenues. [via MICgadget]

by MacNN Staff