Shanda has invested over million dollars in Chinese Android market Goapk.com which valued the company at more than 10 million dollars. Xue Kai, co-founder of the 3rd party Android apps distribution service confirmed.
Founded in 2008, Goapk is one of the first companies ventured into Android market area. The market to date has over tens of thousands of Android applications, more than 3,000 active developer accounts, with daily download counts of over 1 million and total download counts of over 100 million since its launch.
With Android smartphone sales skyrocketing in China, and the dilemma that Google hasn’t offered something on a par with Apple’s App Store. There’re lots of 3rd party Android markets in China, including AppChina (invested by Innovation Works), which also crossed an aggregate of over 100 million downloads, HiApk(by game vendor NetDragon), Aimi8, Eoemarket and Mumayi. Competition in Android apps distribution channel has been intensified after Shanda’s investment in Goapk.
According to people familiar with Chinese 3rd Android markets, none of those markets have generated positive and consistent revenue yet. On top of ever-lasting losses, those markets also had to pay for bandwidth, servers, and salaries. Because majority of Android apps are offered for free, it’s even harder to make profit from developers or from selling of apps. With competition getting stronger and gloom revenue outlook, it’d be nice if someone offers an acquisition.
Shanda has long been busy plotting a course across application distribution area. The popular online game vendor tried to grab NetDragon’s HiApk in April last year. But the two parties failed to reach a deal because of overpriced offer. Later on, Shanda hired away several founders of HiApk to found Nduoa, which never lived up to Shanda’s expectation. After two failures in seizing the nascent distribution markets, Shanda started to talk to Goapk and eventually made a successful deal lately.
Leave a comment