Ilja Laurs
- Name
- Ilja Laurs
- Company
- GetJar
- Function
- Founder & CEO
- Description
Ilja Laurs is Founder and CEO of GetJar, the world’s largest open mobile application store.
In 2009, Informa Telecoms & Media included Ilja in the “Top 40 most influential people in mobile communications”.
Since 2005, GetJar provides global distribution and monetisation services to 350,000 developers, from one-man shops to established brands like Google, Microsoft and Facebook.
As of August 2009, GetJar has 50,000 games and apps and serves 50,000,000 downloads per month through its own site and network of OEM and carrier partners that include Vodafone, Sony Ericsson, Blackberry and others.
Born in 1976 in Lithuania, and attended school at a time when the country was part of the Soviet Union, Ilja enrolled in an American student exchange program and graduated from Jackson high school in Ohio in 1994. He came back to Lithuania to attend Vilnius University where he studied Economics, financing his education by teaching English to school students.
Serial enterpreneur since 1999, Ilja’s launched over 20 successful projects, as diverse as Lithuania’s largest hotel reservation system LithuanianHotels.com, mobile payments system MicroPay.lt and mobile games studio Gaxo Interactive.
Fluent in Lithuanian, Russian and English, he holds a keen interest in Basketball, Tennis, Chess and Watches, and enjoys traveling.