I recently added Firebase analytics to my iOS app and I was wondering if Firebase analytics can track app usage in China? The thing is, we get a lot of downloads from China and tracking app usage in China is pretty important.
Some context, I initially wanted to add Google Analytics but the Google Analytics page for iOS apps redirected me to Firebase and hence I ended up adding Firebase analytics to my app.
I finally have a theory that I am satisfied with and I have written a blogpost that I hope can save others some time. The post details my analysis of the situation the includes how the GFW in China works, the OPT-IN nature of App Analytics in iTunes and why some data for Firebase analytics comes through. Yes and the reason we may see some analytics data in Firebase is not because of VPN, it's in part in the nature of how GFW works.