After 1.8 billion downloads, a file-sharing app makes a big pivot

With over 1.8 billion downloads, Shareit is one of the most popular Google Play apps of all time, according to App Annie.

That’s quite an achievement for an app that many may not have heard of. Shareit started in China in 2013 as a built-in software for Lenovo smartphones and was spun off (for undisclosed reasons) as a separate company two years later, with Michael Qiu as CEO.

Despite being headquartered in Beijing, the company’s largest market is India, followed by Indonesia. In reality, Shareit has “zero users” and “makes no money” in China, says Karam Malhotra, the firm’s global vice president and India CEO.

Photo credit: Shareit

Shareit saw a positive reception in India since it launched there seven years ago. This led to the company shifting its expansion plans to the country, where it gained 150 million users within a year.

In March 2015, the company closed an early-stage fundraise, according to PitchBook. Chinese venture capital firms Addor Capital and Legend Capital, the corporate venture arm of Lenovo’s majority shareholder Legend Holdings are listed as investors, but it’s not stated if they took part in the round, or backed Shareit later.

The company declined to comment on its funding history or earnings, saying it doesn’t disclose any financial information.

Feeding a data-hungry population

Shareit became known for its convenience and speed in transferring huge files in areas hampered by poor network connectivity and slow internet bandwidth.

“Indians struggled to access content as internet access was either scarce, too slow, or patchy. At the same time, data was also too expensive,” says Malhotra. “So rather than watching videos off the internet, Indians relied on sharing content, such as TV shows, movies and music with each other using Shareit.”

Shareit has also become a major platform for distributing apps in India. According to the company, almost half of its users in the country don’t have a Gmail account, which means they have no access to Android’s app store.

Here’s how it works: The app creates a direct Wi-Fi connection that allows users to share software, movies, and games of up to 20 gigabytes in size – without internet access. It does so with speeds that are 200 times faster than Bluetooth, with the highest download speed going up to 20 megabytes per second, according to Shareit’s description on Apple’s App Store. Using the app requires that both sender and receiver be in close proximity for a seamless file transfer, enabled by strength and stability of their Wi-Fi signal.

“Shareit has lots of ‘stickiness.’ We provided a solution when many others couldn’t. [And because] we gave such a strong user case for millions of people in India, Shareit’s value is much stronger,” explains Malhotra.

The company says that it serves over 600 million monthly active users (MAUs). As of Q1 this year, Shareit was in ninth place on App Annie’s list of leading apps by MAUs in India and Indonesia. The ranking combines iPhone and Android users.

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