Portuguese Google Play competitor Aptoide brings its branded app store concept to Southeast Asia

Aptoide is an Android app store positioning itself as an alternative to Google Play. Its key difference is that it allows app developers and brands to create and manage customized stores or channels within the platform.

Founded by Álvaro Pinto and Paulo Trezentos in Portugal in 2011, Aptoide claims to be the third biggest Android market after Google Play and Amazon’s app store.This claim is based on an aggregation of three figures: an accumulated total of 1.5 billion downloads; 50 million monthly active users, which Aptoide defines as having at least one download per month; and 315,000 apps on offer.

Before Aptoide, Pinto and Trezentos ran an IT company, and Aptoide began its life as one of many projects there. When the app market started to get unexpected traction, Pinto and Trezentos decided to spin Aptoide off. In 2013, it received a US$1 million seed investment from government-backed Portugal Ventures.

While Aptoide is most popular in the US and Europe, growth has been particularly swift in Asia over the past year, according to the company. India, the Philippines, and Indonesia are emerging as relevant markets for Aptoide, ranking among the top 15 countries in terms of downloads. This has prompted the company to open an office in Singapore by the end of July.

What makes users try Aptoide?

“So far, we have never had to spend a single dollar on user acquisition,” says Tiago Alvez, vice president of corporate strategy. “We believe users find us through blogs [and] recommendations. They like Aptoide for the fact that it requires no registration, there’s no signup process. Users can immediately start downloading, no matter where they are.”

Another factor which may compel users to try Aptoide is its lax regulations: Some apps that are banned from Google Play are still available on Aptoide. The existence of these apps, among them SB Game Hacker and Tubemate, is likely a key driver to bring new users to Aptoide. It’s no coincidence that these apps rank among the top downloaded in the market. Aptoide’s data shows that in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos SB Gamehacker is the top most downloaded app.

Image provided by Aptoide

That said, Aptoide does have security measures that help filter out potentially harmful apps, according to Alvez. After an app is submitted, there’s an automated process to check for malware and viruses. Aptoide also has a manual system of approval in the form of a certified store, but otherwise the market relies on the community to flag apps that violate Aptoide’s standards.

Once users are on Aptoide, they can discover unique features, namely the possibility for developers or brands to create a customized store, for which they can choose colors and insert a logo. “It can be thought of as similar to a YouTube channel,” says Trezentos. Users who are not app developers themselves can use the feature too, and create their own “playlist” of recommended apps.

Pre-installed on two million devices

Ninety-four percent of Aptoide’s revenue at this point comes from individual app downloads. The remaining six percent are from their white label business. Aptoide works together with manufacturers and helps them create custom app stores which can be pre-installed as the go-to app store on their devices. This way, Trezentos says, the manufacturer can be in full control over how apps are presented to the user.