SHAREit was ranked No.1 globally in terms of growth, according to the recently released Edition XI of The AppsFlyer Performance Index.
It has grown to become one of the largest apps in South Africa, with a staggering total of 20 million South African users.
The World Wide Worx Social Media Landscape Report 2020 lists the largest apps in South Africa in June as Whatsapp with 10.1 million users, YouTube with 9.1 million users, Facebook with 9.1 million users and Instagram with 4.7 million users. SHAREit dominated the rankings with a growth rate of a massive 160% in app installs in Q1 2020.
According to The Index, COVID-19 had a huge impact on mobile apps.
SHAREit's growth, however, has been attributed to its importance of content discovery, gaming and file sharing app which enables media transfer - photos, videos, audio, and apps - without the internet, or the need to access the Google play store. The added bonus is that the app is also free and the file-sharing requires no data.
The service is a revelation for South Africans who have to pay almost the same price for data than those living in Japan (137th) and Germany (140th), according to a report by Cable.co.uk, a price comparison website. South Africa ranked in the top quarter of all countries for the cost of data (148th). “Mobile data prices are incredibly expensive for the poor,” says digital analyst Arthur Goldstuck. “We’d be much, much further down the list if we only looked at data costs for the poorest.”
In a post-COVID world of digital acceleration, SHAREit's focus in Africa is on making digital content equally accessible to everyone – providing those with low income the same technology benefits as those with high income – which has proved highly successful in other regions around the world.
Commenting on the #1 ranking, Karam Malhotra, Partner and Global Vice President, said, "This is a significant achievement for us at SHAREit. We are delighted to have received this recognition by AppsFlyer and firmly believe that it is a testament to the hard work that we have put in to transform SHAREit into the holistic content platform that it is today. It is particularly heartening to see this growth and acknowledgement despite the challenges the world has faced in the year 2020 and further inspires us to remain committed to striving for excellence in the future."
James Edwards, Managing Director of PerformDM, explains, "SHAREit has huge power in its reach – and its offering is essential for our country and where we find ourselves right now - a battered economy, high unemployment, South Africans struggling financially, and businesses seeking to reach customers to acquire or retain customers. For local businesses, this app has opened new doors to advertise and has seen campaigns from clients like Standard Bank, Huawei, Rain, National Lottery, Savanna, Tiger Brands and Pep." SHAREit is the first ecosystem to partner with Google Play to verify, authenticate and attribute each peer 2 peer app to support stable partnerships with local clients in the gaming, e-commerce, and fintech sectors.
The Performance Index by AppsFlyer, has been the industry-standard report card for mobile advertising since the first edition in 2015, acting as a tool for app marketers, world-over, which makes SHAREit's ranking in the growth category so important, specifically focused on the fastest-growing, up-and-coming media sources per region.
This article was originally published in MediaWeb.