Shopping App Downloads Grew 21% Last Quarter on China App Store to 160 Million

The second excerpt from our State of Shopping Apps Report for 2019 focuses on new country-level statistics for the category across the App Store and Google Play. App download estimates in this report are from Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence platform.

Countries with the Most Shopping App Downloads for Q1 2016 to Q3 2019

After a precipitous drop in Q1 2019, shopping app downloads have fully bounced back in China over the past two quarters. Shopping apps were installed more than 160 million times in China in Q3 2019, an all-time high and up 21 percent year-over-year compared to 3Q18. The United States was the second largest market for App Store Shopping downloads, followed by Japan, Russia, and Great Britain. Each of these countries exhibited solid year-over-year growth in Q3 2019 of between 11 and 16 percent.

Google Play Shopping downloads in India peaked at nearly 200 million in Q4 2018 before declining in the first two quarters of 2019. India’s Shopping downloads grew 9 percent quarter-over-quarter in Q3 2019. Brazil passed the U.S. to become the second largest market by Google Play Shopping downloads in Q2 2019. Brazil remained the second largest market in Q3 with 31 percent Y/Y growth, while U.S. Shopping downloads were relatively flat on Google Play.

Fastest Growing Countries by Store

The top three markets for Shopping apps were also among the top countries by growth in Q3, including China, the U.S., and Japan. China alone was responsible for more than 40 percent of worldwide growth, with Y/Y growth of 28 million installs. Some smaller markets, including Brazil and Vietnam, saw downloads increase by more than 40 percent Y/Y in Q3. Brazil surpassed France, Germany, and India to rank among the top 10 countries in Q3 2019 at No. 8. Brazil and Vietnam had overall App Store growth of 16 percent and 12 percent Y/Y, respectively, meaning that the Shopping category growth was much higher than overall download growth.

The five fastest growing countries were among the top 10 countries by Google Play Shopping downloads in Q3 2019. Brazil (No. 2), Russia (No. 4), and Indonesia (No. 5) were among the five largest countries. Meanwhile, the Google Play Shopping category’s first and third largest countries saw essentially no growth Y/Y. India’s Shopping downloads stayed steady at 165 million while U.S. installs decreased by 150,000 to 49.5 million in 3Q19.

Interested in seeing additional shopping apps insights? Download a free copy of our State of Shopping Apps report below:

Sensor Tower's Store Intelligence platform is an Enterprise level offering. Store Intelligence users can see app download estimates for the above apps in addition to historical performance metrics on the Sensor Tower platform. Our download estimates are from the App Store and Google Play in worldwide between January 1, 2016 and September 30, 2019. Apple apps and Google’s pre-installed apps are excluded. Android estimates do not include third-party stores.