Applorer Gamebox Sees Growth in Asia, Users Keen for Premium Games

People love mobile games, and many folks want to be nice by paying for them – but a combination of lousy payment options on Google’s Play Store (formerly the Android Market) and obdurate app publishers who geo-restrict some games can make life difficult for you and I. So when Applorer Gamebox launched a few months ago, bringing lots of Android games and more payment methods, we were curious how it would fare.

And now Stream Media, the Singaporean company behind Applorer (and Movend as well), has stats to show that the curated Android shopfront is thriving, and has a new promo with Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) starting on Tuesday that’ll see EA titles like The Sims 3 for just US$2. But first the stats. Stream Media’s Jeremy Ee says that, after focusing mainly on Asian markets, most users are in this continent. Currently Applorer is seeing 35 percent of its users in Asia, 30 percent from North America, and 20 percent from Europe. He says that people “are buying premium games as well as […] spending on freemium in-app purchases.” Of course, free games are accessible as well.

So far, Jeremy reports, Applorer has just over 5,000 active monthly users, coming from 10,300 downloads in the past one month. He adds: “we are expecting to see [the downloads] number triple in the next month based on current growth rate.” Those folks have clocked up 45,000 sessions in the app, browsing around for games, and seem to be made up of 58 percent guys and 42 percent women.

Users can purchase games – from lots of partner publishers and developers – via PayPal, Cherry Credits, or MOLPoints. All that is powered by the parent company’s Movend billing platform.

Although Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) own app store has improved, refreshed its UI, and even rebranded since we last tested Applorer, it seems likely that the diversity of the Android platform – and issues in getting games – make solutions like Applorer still very viable.

The EA games promo starts within the app this coming Tuesday (April 3rd) and runs every Tuesday until May 1st. Grab Applorer on this direct ‘.apk’ file link; or SingTel users can snag it from the telco’s apps mall. The version on the Play Store only supports getting free games though.