SAN FRANCISCO AND BEIJING, Dec. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- App Annie, the industry leader in app store analytics and market intelligence, today announced another milestone in the company's international expansion with the opening of a new office in Japan. The expansion into Japan is in direct response to escalating market demand for the company's products and services in Japan amid explosive growth of the app economy throughout Asia. App Annie also announced today the appointment of industry veteran Yuji Kuwamizu as Country Director with responsibility for leading operations in Japan. With today's news, App Annie now boasts physical operations in five cities throughout the world, including Beijing, Hong Kong, Paris, San Francisco and Tokyo.

The Japanese iOS and Google Play app stores are among the fastest growing in the world, creating a huge opportunity for publishers, investors and mobile carriers. According to the App Annie Index™, Japan overtook the U.S. in Google Play revenue in October 2012, marking the first time the U.S. did not rank number one for revenue on the Google Play app store. On iOS, share of global revenue for the U.S. has fallen while Japan continues to account for an increasingly larger share. As the market for mobile apps accelerates in Japan, App Annie is well-positioned to meet the high demand for trusted data and intelligence to help businesses gauge and track market interest in apps across the major platforms.  

Today nine of the top 15 iOS publishers by revenue in Japan are App Annie Intelligence customers, including GREE Inc., Adways Co., Ltd., SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd. and NHN Japan Corporation, and all 15 are active users of App Annie's free offerings. The company will release a Japanese-language version of its website next year, including ongoing reports from the App Annie blog focused specifically on the Japanese app economy.  

Kuwamizu comes to App Annie from Singapore-based mobile game publisher Nubee, where he first served as Studio Manager and later became Director of the company's second office in Tokyo. He graduated with a law degree from Seinan-Gakuin University in Japan.

"I'm very excited to join App Annie and help Japanese companies form business strategies with the most accurate market data available for app stores," said Yuji Kuwamizu, country director, App Annie, Japan. "The app economy is growing quickly and Japan's publishers are increasingly going global. App Annie's products are already a major hit among Japanese companies, so it makes sense to serve them with a local presence."

About App Annie Intelligence.
App Annie Intelligence provides the most accurate market estimates for downloads and revenues available for the app stores. This subscription model market data service helps companies define their app store business strategies, encompassing product, marketing, competitive, international and investment strategies. To learn more about App Annie Intelligence, visit: http://www.appannie.com/intelligence.

About App Annie
App Annie is the industry leader in app store analytics and market intelligence for the global app economy. More than 80 percent of the Top 100 iOS publishers by worldwide revenues use its services, and more than 150,000 apps rely daily on App Annie Analytics to track their downloads, revenues, rankings and reviews. The company is tracking more downloads and revenues than any other app store market data company - to date, over 11 billion downloads and more than US$1.5 billion in app store publisher revenues. App Annie is a privately-held global company with offices in Beijing, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit http://www.appannie.com, check out our blog and follow @AppAnnie on Twitter.

SOURCE App Annie