ShareIt eyes firmly on emerging markets

ShareIt Group, a Beijing-based mobile internet service provider, will broaden its market presence in the areas of e-commerce and internet finance in developing markets, its top executive said.

Because the COVID-19 pandemic has already reshaped the world's business map, the company plans to focus more on localization strategies in economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Middle East and North Africa for the long run to maintain robust growth, said Jason Wang, chief business officer of ShareIt.

"Many opportunities arose from soaring demand for audio and video-interacting social apps in these markets, driven by the stay-at-home economy and improved telecommunication networks in many parts of the world," Wang said.

Thanks to China's mature domestic market in this field and the company's strong willingness to expand globally, ShareIt started to develop an app through which people can transfer music, movies and other digital content without using expensive mobile data in markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines in 2015.

The move became popular in many ASEAN member states and then gradually entered the economies of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Its app has been installed 2.4 billion times in more than 200 countries and regions.

As a one-stop online platform for digital content, the ShareIt app is a popular service platform in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Russian-speaking countries. Users can share their short videos, music and games through the app.

A consumer in Jakarta and another user in Shanghai may have similar needs for quality internet services, but what each might get in real life could be fairly different. Given the poor conditions of the internet in many emerging markets, there is huge potential for digital business to grow there, Wang said.

As the expected implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement will increase economic integration in the Asia-Pacific to boost development in a wide range of industries, the company started to provide services for global digital gaming and e-commerce companies, making their products more suitable for their different niche markets.

"We helped a game developer shorten the download time of a game from one hour to three minutes via our unique peer-to-peer transfer solutions," Wang said. "We also helped lots of China-based or cross-border business holders such as livestreaming, mobile game and online education app developers to solve the online-to-offline payment issues in emerging markets."

The company is running offices and branches in various countries and regions, including Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates. It is now eyeing Bangladesh for its next destination as it is an emerging market and boasts a large base of users.

Ma Yu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, said Chinese app developers have had a larger share of downloads in the global market in recent years, in particular in countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Their influence is expected to grow in the next decade.

Ma said COVID-19 has not only propelled a large number of foreign consumers to purchase more products through online channels, but also pushed them to open more social network accounts and spend more time on various social apps.

"Previously, popular app categories in overseas markets were games, photography and tool apps. Now we are seeing more apps created by domestic companies generating revenue through quality video and audio content and social network-driven commerce. This has boosted China's trade in services," he said.

China's trade in services rose 9.4 percent year-on-year to 3.27 trillion yuan ($511.2 billion) in the first eight months, said the Ministry of Commerce.