Many Chinese are becoming "pretty serious chefs" during the novel coronavirus outbreak, with the help of recipe apps.

As one of the measures to contain the spread of the virus, the Chinese government has urged people to try to stay home to avoid crowds since the epidemic broke out in central China's Wuhan City. Thus, many people have figured out ways to spend time home, such as cooking.

Recipe apps have gained popularity during the period, although they are not new inventions. In 2011, the first recipe app "Meishitianxia" launched. In the following three years, no less than 10 recipe apps appeared successively, and the recipe app market presented a pattern of steady development.

Data tracker Qimai Data shows that in the first two months of 2020, four of those apps among the top 20 good food and drink lists for all smartphone devices were recipe apps. And "Xiachufang" and "Caipudaquan" were on the top 10 list of good food and drink apps for iPhone devices in recent weeks.

"Xiachufang" app is the most popular among them. According to data website Qianfan.analysys, it had 13.74 million active users in December 2019. And in January 2020, the number of its active users hit 14.8 million, jumping nearly 8 percent from the previous month.

"We couldn't eat out, so we tried to make everything at home, and that pushed me to rely on the recipe apps. To amateur cooks like me, recipe apps are very helpful – they provide lots of suggestions and inspirations," Shanghai resident Guan Jingwen shared, as she has learned to make everything from chicken wings to French fries and pizzas during the epidemic.

And there's a lot more on those apps than just recipes. The other functions include online communities allowing cooking fans to share their thoughts, to online shops selling ingredients and kitchen ware.

The epidemic has led to a surge in new users, however, there's no clear idea about whether the apps are making money. Cui Lili, Executive Director of Institute of E-commerce at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, is confident on the potential growth.

"Recipe apps can make profits on advertising, online shopping, paid content and their big data. Some recipe apps are backed by large e-commerce sites and some of them have also been in the market for more than a decade. Even if they are not making money now, they have potential value in the future," Cui explained.

Moreover, Cui said that one important question for recipe apps is whether their many current users will stick with them as the epidemic eases and restaurants come back to work.

"Very important to the future development of the recipe apps will be whether users will get into the cooking habit by using them frequently and changing their lifestyles after the epidemic," she added.