Google Chrome has over one billion monthly active users and its large install base could be a huge potential market for extension developers. However, according to Extension Monitor, around 87 percent of all extensions have less than 1,000 installs.
While many extensions have only a few installations, only 13 extensions have been able to cross the 10m mark which is the highest user count threshold available on the Chrome Web Store.
These 13 extensions include Google Translate, Adobe Acrobat, Tampermonkey, Avast Online Security, Adblock Plus, Adblock, uBlock Origin, Pinterest Save Button, Cisco Webex, Grammarly for Chrome, Skype, Avast SafePrice and Honey.
A few extensions are getting closer to the 10m mark but the number of extensions with multi-million userbases is still quite small. This is especially true when you compare Chrome extensions with Android apps as Android also has over one billion monthly active users.
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Chrome extensions
Despite the fact that there are 188,620 extensions available on the Chrome Web Store, many are apparently struggling to stay afloat.
A recent scan of the entire Chrome Web Store, conducted by Extension Monitor, has revealed that almost 50 percent of all Chrome extensions have less than 16 installs which means that half of the Chrome extension ecosystem is basically deserted.
Additionally, 19,379 extensions (a little over 10 percent) have zero installs while 25,540 extensions (13 percent) have just one user. The scan also found that very few Chrome extensions have managed to establish a dedicated userbase.
Extension Monitor's research shows that Chrome extension ecosystem is dominated by a few very large players while the rest struggle to gain more users. The company will conduct two scans in the future with additional details on the most populated extensions categories and how extensions handle permissions and content security.
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Via ZDNet
