With demand from semi-urban areas firing up India’s app consumption, there has been an increase in India’s app installs with 38.5 percent of market share, beating the US and China in 2020, according to a new report by mobile attribution and marketing analytics firm AppsFlyer.
Since Indians along with the rest of the world, spent most of their time at home during the pandemic, the dependency on apps increased substantially.
The study analysed 7.3 billion installs that were recorded in India from January 1st to November 30th, 2020, including 4519 apps covering Entertainment, Finance, Shopping, Gaming, Travel, News, Food & Drink, and Utility verticals. The data sample also includes 933 billion app opens and 3.0 billion remarketing conversions.
The overall mobile usage increased, and semi-urban areas emerged as the hub for mobile usage giving rise to an ideal opportunity to reach younger digital consumers.
Uttar Pradesh, which is India’s most populated state, led the market in non-organic installs (NOI) at 12.10 percent, leaving behind Maharashtra at 11.49 percent due to the impact of lockdown.
Owing to the availability of cheaper mobile data and handsets, the tier 2, 3, and 4 cities saw a rise in mobile usage in Gaming, Finance, and Entertainment.
Additionally, various apps in different verticals were launched targeting lower-tier cities that boosted mobile usage in tier 2 and 3 cities.
Sanjay Trisal, Country Manager, AppsFlyer India, “The State of App Marketing report is the source of truth for apps to drive marketing success in 2021 and beyond. While Chinese apps have slipped in terms of overall market share (29%), Indian apps leveraged this opportunity by dominating the install volume (40%) in the country. Foreign apps from Israel, the United States, Russia, and Germany made further inroads into this rapidly growing market and are in line to challenge China. Closer to home, it is encouraging to see tier 2 and 3 markets provide tough competition to the metros when it comes to gaming, entertainment, and fintech. Regional content is a key byproduct of this trend, and it will be the next big pivot for app marketers.”
Owing to the government lockdown’s financial implication, app marketers have had to slash their budgets, resulting in lower overall spending, which led to a 12 percent decrease in app retention rates. The lower retention rate encouraged marketers to change their strategies towards remarketing.