Apple introduced a gold iPhone in part to suit Chinese tastes for luxury, Tim Cook has said.

The Apple chief executive chooses details including the colours to appeal to local tastes, he told Bloomberg Businessweek. The decision to offer a gold iPhone was partly a response to the popularity of that colour in China, he said.

In China, as elsewhere, the colour gold is considered to be a marker of luxury. The company brought out its first iPhone in the colour in 2013, with the iPhone 5S, alongside its standard white and space grey options.

Apple has been looking to expand in China, planning to open dozens of shops in the coming years. Cook made the remarks as part of a tour in China that saw him launch new environmental initiatives and join Weibo, one of the country’s most popular social networks.

It is now the company’s second biggest market, after America, and it is battling with the big companies there like Samsung and Xiaomi for smartphone dominance.