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Which are the biggest alternative Android App Stores in the world? (excluding China)
Hello! Thank you for your question on which are the biggest alternative Android app stores in the world. I understand that you are looking for the biggest alternative Android app stores in terms of app downloads or monthly active users (MAU) and that you do not want stores developed or based in China. You would also like to know what differentiates each store in the market. The short version is that Opera Mobile Store is the largest alternative Android app store in the world (excluding stores in China), with 100 million MAU. I have detailed my research of 12 alternative Android app stores on a spreadsheet for easy comparison.
METHODOLOGY
I used several lists of top alternative Android app stores to begin my research. I first researched the location of each app store's headquarters to ensure I did not include any Chinese stores in my results. Once I had the list of 12 alternative Android app stores that are global in nature and have a substantial user base, I began using each store's website, various app tracker tools, and user review sites to find the answers to your question.
LIMITATIONS
Several alternative Android app stores do not have available numbers on how many downloads they have per month. These are Samsung Galaxy App Store, SlideMe, AndroidPit, Soc.io Mall, F-Droid, and Appszoom. For this reason, I ranked the list based on the number of MAU, since I was able to find those statistics for each store.
Note: GetJar was acquired by the Chinese company, Sungy Mobile in 2014. I was unsure if I should include this company on the list or not because of its Chinese ownership. However, because it is such a large store, with the same number of MAU as Amazon AppStore, and since it was originally founded in Lithuania, I decided it should be on the spreadsheet. However, I am not including GetJar in the top three alternative Android app stores because of this acquisition, even though in terms of MAU it would be third on the list.
RESULTS
The 12 biggest global alternative Android app stores based on the number of monthly active users (MAU) are:
CONCLUSION
The top three global alternative Android app stores according to the number of MAU each app has are Opera Mobile Store, based out of Oslo, Norway; Amazon AppStore, based out of Seattle, Washington, USA; and Samsung Galaxy App Store, based out of Suwon, Korea. I have included the MAU, number of downloaded apps (where available), and key features of these stores, plus nine others, on the spreadsheet.
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