iTunes Store: Apple Expands Asian Market

By Charlene Cooper | Jun 28, 2012 11:53 AM EDT

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Apple has expanded its iTunes online store to create an even larger Asian market. On Wednesday the store became available to places like Hong Kong, Taiwan and ten other Asian countries.

The company hopes that this move will help them sell music and video to more users in the company's fastest growing region.

The iPhone store is also opening up shop in other places such as Singapore, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia and Laos. China, however, was not one of the many locations in which the store became available, despite the fact that the country brings in a large portion of the company's revenue.

Now in these territories, customers can have access to the iTunes store in addition to Apple's App Store.

Prior to the opening of the iPhone store, people in these areas could only access the feature through use of gift cards sold in countries where the store was available.

Now users can conveniently get a hold of the store's music and movies through use of local credit cards.

The iTunes Store features local artists including Girl Generation and Jay Chou, as well as international artists such as Jason Mraz and Adele. The store makes over 20 million songs accessible to users to purchase and download.

The Asia-Pacific region contributes to a large part in Apple's income growth as sales in the region increased by 174 percent last year to $14.3 billion.

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