Over 1m apps shared in SA daily via SHAREit
Peer-to-peer file-sharing, content streaming and gaming platform SHAREit is witnessing massive growth in the South African market.
In an e-mail interview with ITWeb, the company says more than one million apps are shared across South Africa every day using the SHAREit app.
The SHAREit platform supports online and offline sharing of files and content, and allows users access to short-format videos and a range of games, making it a multimedia entertainment app for users.
SHAREit was developed as part of Lenovo at its initial stage but was later spun off and operated under a separate Singapore-based technology company, Smart Media4U Technology.
It competes against platforms such as Files Go, Nearby Share, P2P Share Alliance and Send Anywhere, among others.
According to research firm Market Research Future, the file-sharing market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 27% from 2020 to 2030, reaching $18.33 billion.
Among the factors that propel growth of this market is the accessibility of communication networking technologies such as 5G or 4G, the increasing development of file-sharing apps and the surge in created data.
File-sharing apps have over the years been accused of security vulnerabilities and flaws by cyber security firms. However, SHAREit says it has beefed up its security with a new tool called SHAREit SAFE, to keep users’ private files safely locked-up, through a multi-layered security approach. “In South Africa, people are using SHAREit to send the largest apps to their peers or friends within seconds without the need for any phone data,” the company tells ITWeb.
It notes that gaming is one of the most popular categories for file-sharing, wherein users send gaming apps to their friends with no need to download the game cache file, along with the corresponding skin and game upgrade package.
The democratisation of app distribution channels has encouraged users to source apps beyond conventional app stores, it adds.
“SHAREit has emerged into a powerful ‘air-drop’ for the Android ecosystem, allowing users to send and receive apps and games without internet consumption. Our users are across different age groups, who have the need to share files, including photos, games, movies, music, etc. With the improvement of internet infrastructure, people are still using SHAREit because users get to install more, download more and play more games. The user habit journey changed so fast that it changed way faster than the infrastructure.”
SHAREit says it sees South Africa not only as a local market but also as a regional office to serve clients and users across Africa. “We have collaborated with PerformDM, one of Africa’s leading digital media sales agencies, as the exclusive strategic sales partner in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
It adds that Africa has been identified as one of the most exciting markets as it is largely an Android market, with more and more digital behaviour and adoption of new technologies.
“We are expecting Africa to outperform SHAREit’s average growth in 2022 and become one of the leading countries of the SHAREit global team in the next three years.”
