GeoPackage (GPKG) is an open, non-proprietary, platform-independent and standards-based data format for geographic information systems built as a set of conventions over a SQLite database.
[4] Despite dozens of file formats and services for exchanging geospatial data, there was not an open format which could support both raster and vector data, while being efficiently decodable by software, particularly in mobile devices.
[9] The schema defines data and metadata tables with specified definitions, integrity assertions, format limitations and content constraints.
[9] The GeoPackage standard describes a set of conventions (requirements) for storing vector features, tile matrix sets of imagery and raster maps at various scales, schema and metadata.
This makes it suitable for mobile applications in disconnected mode[10] and rapid sharing on cloud storage, USB drives, etc.