Recession fears aren’t hurting the want record and buying app GoWish, which is seeing document numbers forward of the 2025 vacation season. The app, which has north of 13.6 million registered customers, had its greatest day but this week, when on Monday it hit No. 2 on the U.S. App Retailer.
Whereas GoWish has seen comparable adoption tendencies in earlier years, this yr has confirmed to be a breakout success. The app doubled the variety of customers from final yr, and it has been breaking information with tons of of 1000’s of latest every day customers within the month of November.
Within the U.S. alone, the app has practically 6.2 million customers, whereas it has round 1 million within the U.Ok. In its dwelling market of Denmark, the want record app has over 50% market penetration and over 3.5 million registered Danish customers.
Although immediately it operates as a tech firm, GoWish has a novel origin story.
The app was initially launched in 2015 by the Danish-Swedish nationwide postal service PostNord as “Ønskeskyen.” (That’s Danish for “want cloud.”) It was only a seasonal want record gimmick, however its founders noticed the potential for it to be one thing extra.
In 2020, GoWish was acquired by Danish VC Dotcom Capital, which is owned by founder Casper Ravn‑Sørensen, who can be GoWish’s chief development officer, and his associate, CEO Mads Dahlerup. They spun it out as an impartial tech firm and created a world model of Ønskeskyen (the app’s title in Denmark and Norway).
“We could be the primary state-founded tech platform to go international as a privately-owned scale-up,” Ravn‑Sørensen instructed TechCrunch.
Customers can use the app to create a number of want lists for themselves, their household, and pals, and for various events. Needs — or merchandise you should buy from on-line retailers — could be added on to your record by copying and pasting a URL, trying to find a product, or searching the inspiration feeds that characteristic thousands and thousands of merchandise. Once you’re prepared to purchase, you’ll be able to faucet a button within the app to go on to the retailer’s web site.
The corporate has round 65,000 affiliate partnerships and over 700 model partnerships, a lot of which at the moment are including “GoWish” buttons to their very own web sites. This mannequin has been profitable, defined Ravn‑Sørensen, because the app noticed web income after tax of $1.7 million in its fiscal yr 2024, that are being reinvested in its development. (GoWish declined to reveal its complete income.)
The corporate attributes its elevated adoption this yr to the advertising it’s been doing throughout Meta, TikTok, Google, and Snap. Snap even gave GoWish a shoutout on its This autumn earnings name, because it’s been one in every of Snap’s associate success tales.
“We’re superb at optimising our advertising spends throughout digital platforms and that makes our international roll-out very efficient,” Ravn‑Sørensen mentioned.
The corporate will later increase its expertise with AI, however isn’t but sharing particulars about these plans.
“Now we have a mission of ‘fixing gifting’,” famous Ravn‑Sørensen, including that GoWish needs to make “customers’ desires and needs come true whereas making double-gifting and returns a factor of the previous.” (The app lets household and pals reserve gadgets on customers’ want lists so customers gained’t obtain the identical present from a number of folks.)
“But, on an extended trajectory, we wish to turn out to be the ‘international genie’ of social buying, that may predict future shopper tendencies throughout generations,” he mentioned.
The Copenhagen-based firm is at the moment a staff of 90 and is backed by Capital D, a London-based non-public fairness agency that purchased one-third of the corporate in early 2025; the remainder is owned by the Danish VC Dotcom Capital.
GoWish is obtainable on iOS and Android and provides a Chrome extension so as to add gadgets to want lists out of your pc.
