[Lithuania] GetJar, the largest independent mobile app store, has announced a ‘strategic partnership’ with Reliance Communications (RCOM), India’s second largest mobile operator.
Under the arrangement, the two companies will create India’s largest free mobile apps store, in which RCOM’s 100 million subscribers will get access to GetJar’s 65,000 free mobile applications, which target a range of handsets and platforms, not just high end smartphones. Popular apps available through the store include Facebook Mobile, Yahoo!, Opera Mini, and Nimbuzz.
Reliance Communications will offer the GetJar apps store across both its GSM and CDMA networks.
It’s a great match for GetJar’s app store and should help the company continue its growth path. The company claims 300% growth year-on-year, averaging over one million downloads per day globally. While in India, the country is adding more mobile phone subscribes each month than any other. In other words, the market is extremely fertile and represents a massive mobile Internet opportunity – just ask Nokia – and one which GetJar is now positioned to exploit. Interestingly, GetJar is already the 4th most visited mobile site in India, says the company
As for RCOM, they hope that by offering GetJar’s free app store it will help accelerate the increase in paid data usage by its subscribers, which is seen as an important way of increasing revenue and driving up average spend per customer.
GetJar originates from Lithuania where its dev team still operates but, like many European tech companies, has a head office in California, US. The company is backed by $6 million in venture capital from Accel Partners.