Uzbekistan’s Uzum Market has emerged as the top local app in the country for 2023, coming close to the likes of Telegram and Instagram with over 13.5mn downloads in the past year, the company said in a press release on February 1.

The success of the national e-commerce platform underscores Uzbekistan's status as the fastest-growing e-commerce market in Central Asia.

Internal data from Uzum, corroborated by mobile analytics and app store statistics, confirms Uzum Market as the leading locally-based and e-commerce mobile application in the country for 2023. The app's download numbers are now roughly on par with global giants Telegram and Instagram, reflecting a burgeoning online retail sector in Uzbekistan, one of the fastest growing economies in the Former Soviet Union (FSU).

KPMG's global network of professional services firms projected a sevenfold increase in the Uzbek e-commerce market, estimating its value to reach $2.2bn between 2022 and 2027. The exponential growth is supported by government digital initiatives, an uptick in internet users, the burgeoning and young population and the rise of significant domestic players. Uzum Market is the only marketplace in Uzbekistan with its own fintech and logistics solutions.

Vyacheslav Karpov, CEO of Research Group Central Asia (RGCA), highlighted Uzum Market's robust user engagement growth, noting that "eight out of ten residents in the country are now familiar with the Uzum Market brand, while half of respondents have already placed at least one order via Uzum’s e-commerce platform."

Uzum's co-founder and CEO, Djasur Djumaev, expressed pride in the swift development of an integrated ecosystem, stating: "In only one year, our team has succeeded in building an ecosystem of fintech and e-commerce services with more than 10mn monthly active users." He noted the app's role in Uzum's transformation into a superapp, with nearly half of marketplace orders being processed through Uzum's own instalment payment service.

Nikolay Seleznev, chief strategy and business development officer at Uzum, remarked on the robust mobile app market in Uzbekistan. Citing Sensor Tower's study, he said: "the number of app downloads in Uzbekistan is expected to double and reach 1.8bn by 2027." He underscored Uzum Market's pivotal role in digitising the retail and banking sectors through innovative services and payment methods.

Uzum is Uzbekistan's largest digital platform, offering a spectrum of services including e-commerce, express delivery, banking, fintech and business development. Its ecosystem serves nearly a third of the nation's population every month.