2.6B-installs SHAREit vanished from Google Play, and a clone whose every page says "Share it" took its place
What it is An offline file-transfer app modeled on SHAREit (hotspot direct connection, QR-code pairing, offline mini-games). It started in India 2020 years ago and is free, earning from ads.
Why it took off SHAREit suddenly disappeared from Google Play, and people searching "shareit" had nowhere to go. ShareKaro's copy had long said "Share it," the features were nearly identical, and localized store pages for multiple countries were already in place. So it took over SHAREit's spot in search results and charts, more or less as-is.
CHow you could follow this Don't build another file-transfer app. Take the method instead: watch for mass removals of top apps on each country's charts, keep your description full of generic terms users search for, pre-build localized store pages in advance, and be ready to catch the traffic when a vacuum opens.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-01-29 · 11-07 installs 179,800,566
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.Android · Ratings count (cumulative) Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
Since Oct 30, searching "shareit" on Google Play in South Africa, the Philippines, or Indonesia no longer returns SHAREit first. The top result is an app called ShareKaro. SHAREit's developer account, along with 4 other apps under it, was pulled as a whole, and ShareKaro added over 110 million new installs in a single week, moving into SHAREit's old slots on multiple countries' tools charts. Its product has nothing new; it rose on three things: it looks alike, it piggybacks on the name, and it's still alive. Almost no one has reported on this, but it was a one-time event. ShareKaro has already taken the position, and those who follow can mostly take away the method, not the opportunity itself.
A vanished chart-topper
As of Oct 30, SHAREit was still on Google Play charts in 30 countries, and in several it was #1 in the free tools chart. Its cumulative Play installs were 2.6B, and the lite version SHAREit Lite had another 290M.
Starting Oct 31, these two apps, along with the offline mini-games and PDF reader from the same company (Singapore's Smart Media4U), disappeared from every chart together, and both store pages and developer pages stopped loading. As of Nov 6 it was still that way. Whether Google banned them or they were withdrawn voluntarily has no public explanation: no report turns up in English or Indonesian, and X has seen no discussion in the past month.
An app this many people used doesn't stop being needed just because it vanished. People with new phones need to reinstall it, friends sending you a file need you to have the same app first, and searching "shareit" still has to return something.
Who caught it
ShareKaro isn't a new app. It started in India 2020 years ago, and that June India banned a batch of Chinese apps, SHAREit among them. The press framed "Share Karo" as "India's own SHAREit" (Republic World 7-11, YourStory 8-20). By late October this year it had about 179M installs on Play, but it only charted in India, ranking more than a hundred on the tools free chart.
Here's how its numbers changed after SHAREit disappeared (Google Play, 10-29 to 11-06):
| Date | New ratings that day | Charting in several countries |
|---|---|---|
| 10-30 | 5 | 1 (India) |
| 11-01 | 305 | 23 |
| 11-02 | 555 | 23 |
| 11-06 | 509 | 24 |
Its daily new ratings went from single digits to four or five hundred, roughly a 70-fold increase. It added 1.12M installs in one week, and the sibling app ShareKaro Lite gained another 390k, so the two together added about 1.5M in a week.
名次几乎是原样接过来的(工具免费榜,10-30 SHAREit 的名次 → 11-06 ShareKaro 的名次):南非 1 → 1,菲律宾 1 → 1,马来西亚 4 → 4,阿联酋 4 → 3,印尼 5 → 1,沙特 9 → 1,美国 139 → 22。它现在上榜的 24 个国家,和 SHAREit 消失前在榜的 21 个国家基本是同一批。
Other file-transfer apps also grew in the same period, just by less: Xender's daily new ratings rose by only about a quarter, and InShot's InShare roughly doubled or tripled. The vacuum was mostly absorbed by ShareKaro alone.
Why it ranks first
The name and copy have been riding on SHAREit all along. The description reads "You can Share it for iPhone Free … Share it with all your friends now!", and the Lite version's one-line description is simply "File Transfer & Shareit with Android/iOS/PC, Shareit for iPhone." Normally this only picks up a bit of long-tail search traffic. Once SHAREit left, people searching the brand name landed on it. On Nov 6, searching "shareit" on Play in South Africa, Indonesia, and the Philippines returned it at #1, and the Lite version was in the top six.
The features are copied straight. Hotspot direct connection and QR-code pairing are all there, and even the offline mini-games SHAREit added later were brought over. Back in August a South African user wrote: "It seems that this app is a complete copy of the SHAREit app because all the features available in this app are the same as those in SHAREit." For existing users, switching requires no relearning.
Multi-country store pages were already prepared. On Oct 31 it entered charts in 23 countries in a single day, which couldn't be done with last-minute translation. Malaysia's title is "ShareKaro: Kongsi Fail," while SHAREit's was "SHAREit: Pindah & Kongsi Fail"; Indonesia and Saudi Arabia also have localized titles. It shipped two versions back-to-back on Oct 31 and Nov 2, adding offline mini-games and Status Saver to the description. The team is clearly chasing this opportunity.
File transfer naturally drives referrals. To send files face to face, both phones need the same app. Whoever holds the "SHAREit substitute" position gets existing users to bring in new ones.
Where the money comes from, and what users say
It's free with no in-app purchases and runs on ads. Half of the new reviews complain about the ads: "Too much ads!!!!" "there is lot of long ads which not skipable" (South Africa, 11-01). Others compare it to the original, and opinions go both ways: "better than sharit.apk … sharit app disgusting connection failed" (11-04), "Sharekaro is bad than shareit" (same day).
Its users are mainly in low-price ad markets like South Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, where each install is worth only a few cents, so revenue scale can't be reliably estimated. Whether it spends on user acquisition can't be checked either; public ad libraries don't track it, and that doesn't mean it isn't advertising.
Who's behind it
Not clear. The store lists the developer as "ShareKaro Team," and the two apps' contact emails are two different personal Gmail addresses. The developer on the third-party store Uptodown is RE PEAK (HK) CO., LIMITED, a Hong Kong company founded 2022 years ago that describes itself as an overseas ad-placement agency. In 2023, News18 grouped it with Tiki and Helo, questioning whether these were Chinese-owned apps "returning under a local name." Whether it has any connection to SHAREit is unverified.
Who it's competing with
| Product | Scale (Google Play, 11-06) | Compared with ShareKaro |
|---|---|---|
| SHAREit | 2.6B installs, removed | The original being copied; whether it comes back decides how long ShareKaro holds its spot |
| ShareMe (Xiaomi) | 2.78B, +4.91M in a week | Preinstalled on Xiaomi phones, no ads, doesn't go after the SHAREit keyword |
| EasyShare(vivo) | 1.52B, +6.82M in a week | Preinstalled by manufacturers, mainly to ease phone switching |
| Xender | 770M, +2.22M in a week | Neutral veteran, rating growth only up about a quarter this time |
| Zapya | 275M, +690k a week | Veteran, strong in Thailand |
| InShare(InShot) | 117M, +250k a week | Few ads, good reputation, ranks low for the search "shareit" |
| LocalSend | 12M, +250k a week | Open source, no ads, cross-platform, aimed at technical users |
| Quick Share / AirDrop | Built into the system | No install needed; but Android-to-iPhone transfers, low-end phones, and APK sharing are all underserved, and this kind of app lives in that gap |
Searching "shareit", a few small copycat apps still rank in positions 2–6 (com.denniscode.shareit 10k+, com.shareitanywhere.app 100k+, etc.), and their volume is small.
If it were you
C: Worth learning from, but not worth chasing. The opening came from one delisting, and ShareKaro caught it with years of accumulated assets: 180M old installs, 360k ratings, a long-running borrowed brand keyword, and multi-country store listings set up in advance. A new app entering now won't rank above ShareKaro for "shareit", and even if it ships it'll just be another ad-heavy file transfer tool on the low-price market. If SHAREit comes back to the store, this window closes on the spot.
Good for: small teams that already have a stable of utility apps on Play, are experienced with multilingual ASO, and treat "watching top apps for delistings" as routine work.
Not for: anyone who wants to build a file-transfer app from scratch to ride this traffic; anyone unwilling to touch the gray tactic of piggybacking on a competitor's brand keyword (Google may treat it as misleading metadata); anyone counting on subscription revenue.
How to do it: Take away the method, not the category. Compare charts across countries every day. When a top app disappears from every chart at once and its store page won't load, that's a demand vacuum. In normal times, have your listing naturally include the generic terms users search for in your category, and prepare localized store pages for your main markets in advance so you can catch the traffic the day something happens.
How to acquire users: Entirely through store search. The first week or two after a brand-keyword vacuum appears is worth the most: ship updates fast, add localized titles, and state clearly in the description that you do "what X does." For tools that need both sides installed, once you hold the top spot, use in-app invites that let people scan a code to download.
When to move before others: For this specific case the window is already taken by ShareKaro. The method itself can be used anytime, but each vacuum probably lasts only days to weeks, and anyone without pre-built assets won't be able to catch it (inference).
What would show this read was wrong: ① SHAREit stays off the store for two months while ShareKaro slowly gets overtaken by Xender and InShare because of its heavy ads, meaning the stand-in spot hasn't settled and a less ad-heavy, better-experience alternative still has a chance; ② conversely, SHAREit comes back to the store quickly and ShareKaro falls back to over a hundred in India, meaning this takeover was just a passing gust.
Sources
- Google Play: daily installs, rating counts, country chart positions, and reviews for ShareKaro and ShareKaro Lite from 10-29 to 11-06; chart positions for SHAREit, SHAREit Lite, etc. 10-30, and 11-06 store pages and developer page unreachable; 11-06 search results for "shareit" in South Africa, Indonesia, and the Philippines; install counts for Xender, ShareMe, EasyShare, Zapya, InShare, and LocalSend (11-06).
- Coverage of India's "homegrown SHAREit" narrative in 2020 from Republic World (2020-07-11), YourStory (2020-08-20), and Times Now (2020-07-04); News18 (2023-02-20).
- Uptodown developer page, RE PEAK (HK) official site profile; AppBrain developer page; ShareKaro official site sharekaro.app.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one SHAREit(Smart Media4U) Android 2013 2.6B installs; charted on 10-30 30 charts; store page 11-06 404 The original being copied has left Play; ShareKaro's features and selling point (offline mini-games) are nearly identical SHAREit Lite Android Not verified 291M installs, 404 A lightweight version of SHAREit, also gone ShareMe (Xiaomi) Android About 2017 2.78B installs, +4.91M in 7 days Preinstalled on Xiaomi phones, no ads; didn't go after SHAREit's brand keyword EasyShare(vivo) Android Not verified 1.52B installs, +6.82M in 7 days Preinstalled by manufacturers, mainly for phone switching Xender Android About 2012 770M installs, +2.22M in 7 days Neutral veteran; rating growth after the event rose only about 25%; India store page 404 Zapya(Dewmobile) Android 2012 275M installs, +690k in 7 days Veteran, strong in Thailand, didn't piggyback on SHAREit InShare(InShot) Android 2019 117M installs, +250k in 7 days Few ads, good reputation, but ranks low for the search shareit MX ShareKaro(MX Media) Android 2020-07 2020-08 passed 1M; no updates for 2024 years Nearly the same name, not the same company; essentially unmaintained since MX Player was sold to Amazon LocalSend Open source 2022 Play 12M installs, +250k in 7 days Open source, no ads, cross-platform, audience skews technical Send Anywhere(Rakuten) Android 2012 38.8M installs Relays through the cloud, 6 country code Quick Share / AirDrop Big-company features Built into the system System level No install needed; but Android-to-iPhone transfers, low-end phones, and APK sharing are poorly covered - Where users come from
- Verified Platform event: SHAREit's entire developer account removed from Play: in the library, the last observations for Smart Media4U's 4 apps are all 10-30; 11-06 store page and developer page 404; from 10-31, ShareKaro took over SHAREit's ranks country by country (za 1→1, ph 1→1, my 4→4, ae 4→3)
- Verified Store search / brand-keyword ASO: 11-06 tests on Play searching shareit show com.sharekaro.app at #1 in za, id, and ph; the description reads "Share it for iPhone… Just Share it", and the Lite one-line description reads "Shareit with Android/iOS/PC"
- Verified Multi-country localized store pages: 10-31 and 11-01 both entered the tools charts in 23 countries at the same time; the Malay title "ShareKaro: Kongsi Fail" imitates SHAREit's "SHAREit: Pindah & Kongsi Fail", with Indonesian and Arabic titles too
- Verified Sub-account matrix: ShareKaro Lite from the same developer (168M installs) occupies search slots alongside it, with the two apps registered under two different personal Gmail accounts
- Verified Homegrown-alternative narrative after India banned Chinese apps in 2020: coverage from Republic World 2020-07 and YourStory 2020-08; the description still reads "India's own Sharing App"
- Inferred paid acquisition: not tracked in the Meta, Google or TikTok ad libraries.
Why ShareKaro: File Share&Transfer (com.sharekaro.app) surfaced
One-line verdict: ShareKaro hit #1 in the tools charts across several countries, and the product itself did almost nothing. The event did all the work. 2026-10-30 later, every app from SHAREit's developer Smart Media4U disappeared from Google Play: SHAREit 2.6B, SHAREit Lite 290M, Offline Games, and READit. 4 apps, gone. ShareKaro is a clone that copies SHAREit's features and stuffs its store listing with "Share it / Shareit." It had already localized store pages in more than twenty countries. Once SHAREit was gone, it caught the traffic from people searching "shareit" on Play, and in South Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia it took the top spot SHAREit used to hold.
Research date: 2026-11-06. Data source key: "Library" = our googleplay DuckDB library (collected daily since 2026-10-29).
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1. Resolving the contradiction on the data card first
- The release date on the card is 2026-10-29, yet cumulative installs are 180M. In fact this is an old app: in the library,
app.released_reset = True(reviews predating the store launch have been seen); AppBrain says "ShareKaro Team … active since 2020, ~300 million installs" (https://www.appbrain.com/dev/ShareKaro+Team/, search snippet); it also had pages on Indus Appstore and Uptodown long ago. The release date was reset when info was edited or the app expanded to new storefronts. - So what matters this time is where the growth came from, not a new app's cold start.
2. Key evidence: SHAREit disappeared from Google Play starting 10-31, and ShareKaro surged the same day
On the SHAREit side (library + live checks):
| App | Installs | Last chart appearance in the library | 2026-11-06 store page |
|---|---|---|---|
| SHAREit(com.lenovo.anyshare.gps) | 2,596,415,071 | 2026-10-30 (charted on 30 charts that day, best rank #1) | 404 (us / id / in, all three storefronts) |
| SHAREit Lite(shareit.lite) | 290,721,772 | 2026-10-30 (8 charts, best rank #2) | 404 |
| Offline Games: No WiFi or Data(games.ushareit.offlinegames) | — | 2026-10-30 | 404 |
| READit:PDF(pdf.office.doc.reader.editor) | — | 2026-10-30 | 404 |
| Developer page Smart Media4U Technology Pte.Ltd. | 404 |
The entire developer account was taken down from Google Play (whether by Google penalty or voluntary removal is unverified). Searching for "SHAREit removed / hilang dari Play Store" and similar phrases in English and Indonesian via Exa / Jina turned up not a single media report; x-radar searches for "SHAREit" and "ShareKaro" over the last 30 days each returned 0 results.
On the ShareKaro side (library app_day):
| Date | Total installs | New installs that day | New ratings | Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10-29 | 178,682,113 | — | — | 5.1.29.3 |
| 10-30 | 178,682,113 | 0 | 5 | 5.1.29.3 |
| 10-31 | 178,710,775 | 28,662 | 7 | 5.1.29.3 |
| 11-01 | 178,710,775 | 0 | 305 | 5.1.29.4 |
| 11-02 | 178,710,775 | 0 | 555 | 5.1.39 (10-31 releases) |
| 11-03 | 179,399,652 | 688,877 | 353 | 5.1.39.1 (11-02 releases) |
| 11-06 | 179,800,566 | 400,914 | 509 | 5.1.39.1 |
- Daily new ratings jumped from 5–7 to 300–550, roughly 70x; over 7 days new installs reached 1.12M (library
installs_gain_7d). Store install counts only update every few days, so a single day's 0 doesn't mean nobody installed that day. - Sister app ShareKaro Lite (share.sharekaro.pro, 168M) added 390k over 7 days in the same period. Combined, that's roughly 1.5M per week.
- Until 10-31, ShareKaro was charted only in India, ranking #103–144 on the Top Free Tools chart. On 10-31 and 11-01 it suddenly entered the tools charts of 23 countries (chart_rank DB).
Its rank climbed one step at a time (chart_rank DB, Top Free Tools):
| Store | 10-30 SHAREit rank | 11-06 ShareKaro rank |
|---|---|---|
| South Africa za | 1 | 1 |
| Philippines ph | 1 | 1 |
| Malaysia my | 4 | 4 |
| UAE (ae) | 4 | 3 |
| Indonesia id | 5 | 1 |
| Saudi Arabia (sa) | 9 | 1 |
| Turkey tr / Germany de / Netherlands nl / Singapore sg | 23 / 27 / 28 / 30 | 19 / 15 / 10 / 12 |
| United States us | 139 | 22 |
ShareKaro now spans 24 countries, almost matching the 21 countries where SHAREit 10-30 was charted. Its Malaysian store title is "ShareKaro: Kongsi Fail" while SHAREit's was "SHAREit: Pindah & Kongsi Fail"; in Indonesia it's "ShareKaro: Transfer File", and Saudi Arabia gets an Arabic title. This shows the localized store pages were prepared in advance.
Who now shows up for "shareit" searches on Play (2026-11-06 live search-page capture):
- za: #1 com.sharekaro.app, #3 share.sharekaro.pro
- id: #1 com.sharekaro.app, #5 share.sharekaro.pro
- ph: #1 com.sharekaro.app, #6 share.sharekaro.pro
ShareKaro's description reads "You can Share it for iPhone Free … Just Share it", and the Lite version's one-line summary is "File Transfer & Shareit with Android/iOS/PC, Shareit for iPhone" (app.summary DB). For a long time it stuffed SHAREit's brand name into its copy, earning only some long-tail traffic; once SHAREit was delisted, people searching the brand name landed on it.
Other competitors also grew over the same period, but not as fast (app_day DB, 10-30 → 11-06):
- Xender's daily new ratings went from 800 to about 1000, roughly a 25% increase;
- InShare (InShot) went from 40–50 to 100–140, roughly 2–3x;
- ShareMe (Xiaomi) and EasyShare (vivo) rely mainly on preinstalls on their devices, and their rating growth didn't change much;
- ShareKaro went from 5 to 450, about 70x, the biggest jump.
3. Why it took off
- Timing or platform event (main cause): SHAREit had 2.6B installs and still held #1 on the tools charts in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. After the whole account vanished from Play, users changing phones or installing for friends couldn't find it, and new users searching the brand name couldn't either. That demand suddenly had nowhere to go.
- Brand piggybacking + ASO (App Store Optimization, the tactics for capturing traffic): the title and description repeatedly say "Share it", making it look like SHAREit (a review, verbatim: "It seems that this app is a complete copy of the SHAREit app because all the features available in this app are the same as those in SHAREit", 2026-08-11, za; review DB). It also borrowed SHAREit's offline mini-games selling point (the description says "Discover exciting Offline Games"). It sits first in search results.
- Multi-country localized store pages prepared in advance: 10-31 entered 23 countries on the same day, with titles rewritten in the local languages. 10-31 and 11-02 shipped two versions in a row (5.1.39, 5.1.39.1), and the description added "Offline Mini Games, Status Saver", showing the team was moving with this opportunity.
- Why it can stick around / how it makes money: it's free and monetized through ads (the store page says "Contains ads", with no in-app purchases). About half of recent reviews complain about ads ("Too much ads!!!!", "long ads which not skipable"), but some also say "better than sharit.apk". For face-to-face file transfer, users face one barrier: both phones need the same app installed. Once it holds the "SHAREit stand-in" spot, network effects keep users around. Paid acquisition: Meta / Google / TikTok ad libraries show no tracked activity, unverified.
4. Competitors
| Competitors | Platform | Launched | Scale (library 2026-11-06) | How it differs from ShareKaro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SHAREit (Smart Media4U, Singapore, formerly Lenovo-linked) | Android (now gone from Play) / iOS / PC | 2013 | 2.6B installs; charted in 10-30 30 charts | The original being copied; currently not searchable on Play |
| SHAREit Lite | Android (gone) | — | 291M | Same as above |
| ShareMe (Xiaomi) | Android | About 2017 | 2.78B, +4.91M in 7 days | Preinstalled on Xiaomi phones; no ads, good word of mouth |
| EasyShare(vivo) | Android | — | 1.52B, +6.82M in 7 days | Preinstalled by manufacturers, mainly for phone switching |
| Xender | Android | About 2012 | 770M, +2.22M in 7 days | Neutral brand; India store page now 404 |
| Zapya(Dewmobile) | Android | 2012 | 275M, 7 days +690k | Veteran, strong in Thailand |
| InShare(InShot) | Android | 2019 | 117M, 7 days +250k | InShot family, fewer ads |
| ShareKaro Lite (same developer) | Android | 2023-12(IndieTower) | 168M, 7 days +390k | Smaller sibling from the same company, taking search slots together |
| MX ShareKaro(MX Media) | Android | 2020-07 | Passed 1M installs as of August 2020 (YourStory); latest version stuck at 2024-02 (Uptodown) | Nearly the same name, not the same company; essentially unmaintained since MX Player was sold to Amazon |
| LocalSend | Open source / Android / desktop | 2022 | Play 12M; 7-day +250k | Open source, no ads, cross-platform; audience skews technical |
| Send Anywhere(Rakuten) | Android / iOS / web | 2012 | 38.8M | Relays through the cloud, 6 country code |
| Google Quick Share / Apple AirDrop | Big-company features | — | Built into the system | No install needed; but coverage is weak for Android-to-iPhone transfers, low-end devices, and sending APKs, which is the gap that SHAREit-style apps survive in |
5. Growth tactics broken down
| Channel | Evidence | Confirmed |
|---|---|---|
| Platform event: SHAREit's entire developer account vanished from Play | In the DB, Smart Media4U's 4 apps were last observed on 10-30; 11-06 store pages 404 | Yes |
| Store search / brand-word ASO piggybacking | On Play, searching "shareit": za / id / ph #1 are all ShareKaro; copy repeatedly says "Share it" / "Shareit" | Yes |
| Multi-country localized store pages | 10-31 and 11-01 entered the tools charts of 23 countries at once; Malay, Indonesian, and Arabic titles copy SHAREit | Yes |
| Sibling-app matrix | The same developer's ShareKaro Lite (168M installs) takes search slots together; the two apps list two different personal Gmail contacts (sadhilanandstudio@ / [email protected]) | Yes |
| 2020 "India's SHAREit" patriotic narrative | After India banned Chinese apps (2020-06-29), media framed "Share Karo" as a domestic alternative (Republic World 2020-07-11, YourStory 2020-08-20); the description still says "India's own Sharing App" | Yes (historical origin) |
| Paid acquisition | No ad-library tracking found | Not verified |
| TikTok / X creators | A TikHub search for "sharekaro" only returns unrelated videos for "share karo" (Hindi for "please forward"); x-radar 0 posts | None found |
6. Differentiation
On the product itself there's basically no differentiation: it's a SHAREit clone, with hotspot transfer, QR-code connection, offline mini-games, status saver, and cleaner; the official site sharekaro.app's sections (Transfer / Clean / Download / Files) are also structurally identical to SHAREit's. Only two things are actually different:
- It's still on Google Play, and SHAREit isn't. That's why it broke out this time.
- Brand identity: in 2020 it launched on the story of a homegrown Indian alternative to SHAREit, and now the same brand is being used to capture SHAREit's traffic in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Its own identity is murky, though: News18 (2023-02-20) listed it alongside Tiki and Helo as apps "alleged to be owned by a Chinese company and returned under the Make in India banner," and specifically noted it uses a personal email; the Uptodown developer page lists RE PEAK (HK) CO., LIMITED, a Hong Kong company; and per repeakhk.com's own description, that company was founded in 2022 and does overseas ad placement and sells ad accounts. Whether it has any equity or operational ties to SHAREit is unverified.
Bottom line: ShareKaro broke out on "copy + piggyback + still alive," not because of the product itself.
7. Visibility and copycats
- Visibility: few people know about it yet. As of 11-06, I found no media coverage or X discussion of "SHAREit disappearing from Google Play," and no revenue has been disclosed. ShareKaro itself has appeared in Indian media (framed as a "homegrown alternative" in 2020, questioned over its identity by News18 in 2023), but that's a separate story.
- Copycats: in Play's "shareit" results, positions 2–6 include com.denniscode.shareit (10K+), com.shareitanywhere.app (100K+), com.shareit.rewards, and com.shareitclubs, small apps riding the brand name (install tiers from the store pages, 2026-11-06). Whether they launched in the last few days is unverified. No large new wave of copycats has been spotted yet.
8. What others can learn
- Watch for delistings of top apps: compare regional charts daily. When a top app vanishes from all charts at once and its store page goes 404, that's a demand vacuum. 2.6B installs' worth of brand-word traffic has been left open for at least a week this time, and no one has reported on it yet.
- Pre-claim the stand-in slot for a brand keyword: naturally include the rival's generic terms ("share it") in the description, and build out multilingual store pages. Harvest the long tail in normal times, and take over the day it happens. This approach carries the risk of Google flagging the metadata as misleading.
- Tools that need both ends installed have network effects: once one person installs, the other side has to as well. Once a stand-in holds the top spot, growth comes from existing users bringing in new ones.
- How long this window stays open depends on whether SHAREit comes back; if it's relisted, ShareKaro's rank will likely be pushed back down.
9. Still unclear
- Why SHAREit was pulled (Google ban? voluntary?) and whether it comes back: unverified.
- The real entity behind ShareKaro (RE PEAK HK? an individual Indian developer account? any link to SHAREit?): unverified.
- Whether it runs paid acquisition: our ad library doesn't track it, so not finding ads doesn't mean there were none.
- Revenue: ads only. Estimates built from roughly 1.5M new installs a week and low-market eCPMs are meaningless, so we don't estimate.
- Store install counts update only every few days, so the 7-day increments here are approximate.
Sources
- Database (googleplay, 2026-10-29 → 11-06): app / app_day / chart_rank / review / app_profile
- Live requests to the Google Play store page (2026-11-06): SHAREit, SHAREit Lite, Offline Games, READit, Smart Media4U developer pages are all 404; search for "shareit" (gl=za/id/ph)
- Times Now 2020-07-04:www.timesnownews.com/technology-science/article/mx-sharekaro…
- Republic World 2020-07-11:www.republicworld.com/tech/apps/what-is-the-share-karo-app-k…
- YourStory 2020-08-20:yourstory.com/2020/08/non-chinese-file-sharing-apps-shareit-…
- News18 2023-02-20:www.news18.com/news/india/tiki-helo-sharekaro-experts-concer…
- Uptodown developer page: en.uptodown.com/developer/sharekaro; RE Peak (HK): www.repeakhk.com/about
- AppBrain developer page (search snippet): www.appbrain.com/dev/ShareKaro+Team/
- IndieTower (ShareKaro Lite launched 2023-12-27): indietower.com/apps/android/share.sharekaro.pro
- Website: sharekaro.app/