Go Launcher is a Beijing-based developer of Android apps, including GO Launcher Ex and GO Locker, offering home-screen customization and lock-screen shortcuts. The company reports about 42 million monthly active users across its portfolio, with roughly 70% of users outside China. It generated $22.7 million in revenue in the first six months of this year, an 87% increase year over year, and posted net income of $5.5 million for that period. Revenue streams include paid apps and premium themes (over 40% of H1 revenue), mobile reading services (31.8%), advertising, and purchases of literary content. The company’s parent, Sungy Mobile, picked up $20 million in funding from Qihoo360 and Kingsoft ahead of an IPO filing. Go Launcher filed to go public about two weeks prior to the article and plans to sell American depositary shares in a deal that could value the company at roughly $300 million. GO Launcher is a Beijing-based company that builds an Android homescreen and related apps. Its apps collectively reach about 80 million monthly active users, and it has three Android products with more than 50 million installs each. Key products include GO Launcher Ex, which offers over 10,000 themes, and GO Locker, which adds lock-screen shortcuts and security features. The company began about a decade ago as a mobile WAP portal and shifted to an Android-centric strategy roughly three years ago. GO Launcher has about 800 employees and generates revenue from advertising, a premium $16 paid version, sales of $2 themes, and distribution deals for third-party apps. Half of its revenue comes from its largest GO Launcher apps, and it also earns from partnerships such as an exchange with GetJar and ads via Google's mobile advertising network. Its largest audiences are in the U.S. and South Korea, reflecting the product's global reach.

Total raised

$20M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Nov 2013