GoWish, the shopping and wish list application, isn’t being impacted by recession concerns, as it experiences unprecedented figures leading up to the 2025 holiday period. Boasting over 13.6 million registered users, the application achieved a milestone this week, reaching the No. 2 spot in the U.S. App Store on Monday.
GoWish has previously observed similar adoption patterns, but this year has demonstrated exceptional growth. The application has doubled its user base compared to the prior year, establishing new records with hundreds of thousands of new users daily throughout November.
The app has nearly 6.2 million users in the United States alone, and approximately 1 million in the United Kingdom. The wish list application boasts over 50% market share and over 3.5 million registered users in its native Denmark.
Despite its current status as a tech company, GoWish possesses a distinctive origin story.
Originally introduced in 2015 as “Ønskeskyen” (Danish for “wish cloud”) by PostNord, the Danish-Swedish national postal service, the app began as a seasonal gimmick for wish lists. However, its creators recognized its potential for broader applications.
Danish VC Dotcom Capital, owned by founder Casper Ravn‑Sørensen, who also serves as GoWish’s chief growth officer, and his partner, CEO Mads Dahlerup, acquired GoWish in 2020. They transformed it into an independent tech company and developed an international version of Ønskeskyen (the app’s Danish and Norwegian name).
“We might be the first tech platform started by a state entity to expand globally as a privately-owned scale-up,” Ravn‑Sørensen told TechCrunch.
The application allows users to create and manage multiple wish lists for themselves, family, and friends, tailored to various occasions. Users can populate their lists with desired items — sourced from online retailers — by copying and pasting URLs, conducting product searches, or exploring inspiration feeds showcasing millions of products. Purchasing items involves tapping a button within the app, which redirects users to the retailer’s website.
Ravn‑Sørensen explained that the company’s model, which includes approximately 65,000 affiliate partnerships and over 700 brand partnerships, has yielded positive results, as demonstrated by net post-tax profits of $1.7 million in fiscal year 2024, which the company is reinvesting in further expansion. (GoWish chose not to reveal its total revenue.)
The company attributes this year’s heightened adoption rate to its marketing initiatives across Meta, TikTok, Google, and Snap. Snap highlighted GoWish as a partner success story during its Q4 earnings call.
“Our strength lies in optimizing marketing investments across digital platforms, making our global expansion highly effective,” Ravn‑Sørensen stated.
The company intends to incorporate AI to improve the user experience, but specific details are not yet available.
According to Ravn‑Sørensen, GoWish aims to “fix gifting,” ensuring that “users’ dreams and wishes come true while eliminating duplicate gifts and returns.” (The app enables family and friends to reserve items on a user’s wish list, preventing redundant gift-giving.)
He added that their “longer trajectory” involves becoming the “global genie” of social shopping, capable of “predicting future consumer trends across generations.”
The Copenhagen-based company has a team of 90 and receives funding from Capital D, a London-based private equity firm that acquired one-third of the company in early 2025. The remaining stake belongs to the Danish VC Dotcom Capital.
GoWish is available on iOS and Android and provides a Chrome extension that allows users to add items to wish lists from their computers.
