When it comes to Android emulation, the first thing that comes to mind has always been BlueStacks. Launched in 2011, it was one of the longest Android emulators around and on December 3rd 2015, it launched BlueStacks 2, its biggest product update yet. It also announced that the platform now sees over 109 million downloads, surpassing Sony and Xiaomi in Android distribution numbers. BlueStacks is free to download and run, but it will later disable itself and present users with options to either pay a US$2/month or US$24/year subscription, or install sponsored apps.
Gaming is all the rage these days, and BlueStacks 2 adds several new features to make gameplay and app discovery more enjoyable. BlueStacks claims that some of these features are technological firsts, which include a new browser-like UI, where during gameplay, clicking on an ad won’t interrupt gameplay but instead will open the advertisement on a new “tab” in the background, to be viewed later. BlueStacks 2 also has the ability to run multiple apps simultaneously in different tabs, for the first time ever; something that even stock Android can’t do. The company said most folks prefer gaming on BlueStacks as they can run a separate messaging app at the same time.
BlueStacks CEO, Rosen Sharma, said, “As our product and platform has matured, it has attracted a new genre of gamers. Hardcore PC gamers we find are also into playing midcore mobile games. These users spend a lot of money, which has attracted app developers to our platform in droves. On the other end of the spectrum, apps like messaging and e-commerce also tend to get heavy usage and attract high-value users. The Platform has been a boon for advertisers.”
BlueStacks also reported an “accelerating” growth, with the addition of around 220,000 new users daily, which is twice the rate in 2014. Its homepage BlueStacks.com is now seeing more than 8 million unique visitors a month.
BlueStacks SVP of Marketing and Business Development, John Gargiulo, said, “Where mobile is growing fastest we’re growing fastest. Mobile advertisers are realizing that PC, Mac, phone, and TV are all simply different ways to reach the same person.”
BlueStacks started its humble beginnings as an app player, an emulator of Android apps on the PC. With the release of BlueStacks 2, the company now calls the new version a “mobile gaming platform” that spans mobile, PC, and TV. Since the company’s inception in 2011, it now has over 100 employees, with offices in Beijing, Delhi, London, Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo. So far, a total of US$30 million in funding has been raised from Andreessen Horowitz, Intel, Qualcomm, the most recent one Samsung, and others like AMD, Citrix, Helion Ventures, Ignition Partners, Presidio Ventures (a Sumitomo Corporation Company), Radar Partners, and Redpoint Ventures.
BlueStacks Product Manager, Shashi Kant Sharma, said, “When we started, mobile apps, with their crisp resolution looked and sounded gorgeous on PC and TV. What we’ve learned is that the wider visual space lends itself more naturally to app discovery. It’s accelerated our growth and retention massively over the past year. The average BlueStacks user spends 89 minutes playing on their first day. In addition, once someone discovers apps on PC or TV they tend to use them across all of their devices, giving the BlueStacks platform powerful reach for developers.”
BlueStack’s first version was released back in March 2012, less than a year after the company’s formation in May 2011. As of today, it now has 1.256 million likes on its Facebook Page, and 30.7 thousand followers on Twitter. As mentioned earlier, BlueStacks also reported that it now counts over 109 million downloads, with over 1 billion apps used per month. With this number, it claims to have passed Sony and Xiaomi in Android distribution market share worldwide.
For more information and to download the BlueStacks 2 Android emulator, visit: http://www.bluestacks.com/. Version two is only available on the PC at the moment.
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