Mobile applications have become the lifeline of people today as they depend on them for almost every activity. From gaming to messaging, e-shopping, booking cabs, and more, there is a smartphone application for everything you can think of. The adoption of these apps is seen as the parameter of the technological development of a country. Features such as revenues and downloads were traditionally used to measure the app adoption rates. However, these have now been replaced by the time spent on applications.
According to App Annie, a leading app analytics company, India emerged as the fourth largest app economy in 2016. The analysis is based on the time spent by the Indian users on mobile apps, which has seen a phenomenal increase in the recent time. The boom replicates itself in the context of downloads too. Only China, the US, and Brazil are ahead of the country in terms of the total annual application downloads. The annual figure of app downloads in India is estimated to touch a whopping 20.1 billion by 2020. Factors like availability of affordable smartphones, accessibility to mobile-supporting infrastructure, and the growing population of the country are driving this revolution.
Mobile Applications Are Making It Big In India
According to Junde Yu, MD of App Annie APAC, the Indian users are spending a majority of time on mobile apps rather the browsers. This has shattered the perception that Indians are inclined to use browsers. It has been found that 93% of the time devoted to mobile usage is claimed by mobile apps and not browsers. This is enough to say that mobile applications are making it very, very big in the country.
Hefty Shares Go To Retail, Video-Streaming, And Online Cab Booking Apps
Mobile boom is already an established reality for the Indian economy. Now the key question is to identify the segments that are making it big. E-commerce retail, video-streaming, and cab booking apps share the crown.
Retail shopping apps emerged as true winners in 2016, with the time spent on them growing 11.5 times in its first quarter as compared to that in 2014. There is stiff competition in the area, as e-commerce giants like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra, and more are vying for the top spot. Amazon took the cake in terms of the number of downloads while Flipkart emerged victorious with regards to the monthly active Android users.
After retail apps, the category of video streaming apps registered considerable growth in 2016 according to App Annie. The time spent on these soared almost 7.4 times, with big names like YouTube, Hotstar, NDTV, Voot, and Sony, leading the way.
Online cab booking is the next category of mobile applications that showed booming growth in 2016. App Annie’s analysis came up with the stats that more than 25% of the Indian Android users are using at least a single ride-sharing app. This figure surpasses that of 20% in countries like the UK, US, and Brazil. Ola is the forerunner amongst the most used and downloaded ride apps and Uber follows closely behind.
Such encouraging statistics have opened up a world of opportunities for mobile application development in India. The Indian government is making efforts to create a conducive environment so that they can capitalize on this advantage.
