Softonic, an app and software discovery platform, has acquired AppCrawlr, an intelligent semantic-based app search engine that lets users find apps using contextual search.

Softonic hopes to strengthen its presence in the mobile market and aims to change the way users think about app search and discovery through the acquisition. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

AppCrawlr’s semantic app search technology automatically identifies and builds tens of thousands of categories to classify apps, and allows users to search for apps by either describing who they are, what they want to achieve or the app features they need.

Unlike the traditional keyword search and popularity-based rating systems used by app stores, AppCrawlr enables users to search for apps to, for example, ‘get fit’, navigate with ‘offline maps’ or play games to “kill time”.

According to David Schorr, co-founder of AppCrawlr, “We are now able to understand why an app is desirable based on a deep semantic analysis of millions of user reviews”.

The company expects to increase its mobile audience, which currently generates more than one million downloads per day and represents 25 per cent of Softonic’s total downloads.

The new technology could also open up new opportunities for app developers to reach relevant target audiences.

Scott Arpajian, CEO of Softonic, said: “AppCrawlr provides mobile developers with more exposure and awareness for their apps, creating an efficient eco-system of developers and users.”