Shopping, travel, and gaming apps are the most popular ones.
As smartphones are becoming more commonplace, app usage is growing too. A new report by app analytics provider App Annie reveals that India’s most active smartphone users spend up to four hours a day on mobile apps. India also ranks among the top-five markets globally in total time spent on apps on Android devices. This is hardly surprising given India is Android’s largest global-base and also the top download market for Google Play Store apps. In 2016, Indians had downloaded 6.2 billion apps, up from 3.6 billion in 2015, as per an earlier report by App Annie.
In May 2017, India’s top 20 percent (the most active) Android users were behind only those in South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan, who spent about five hours daily on apps. South Koreans and Japanese have traditionally been app hoarders given their huge appetite for mobile games. Meanwhile, India’s least active users spent at least 1.5 hours on apps, while the median users dedicated about 2.5 hours each day. “This indicates strong adoption of apps even for the least avid users in these countries, thanks to widespread adoption of apps such as WhatsApp and an emerging mobile-first lifestyle,” the report stated. ALSO READ: Global app economy projected to reach $6.3 trillion by 2021: App Annie
Shopping apps seem to be the most popular, followed by travel and games. Indians were second in terms of average time spent — 90 minutes — per month on mobile shopping, App Annie noted. Travel apps are growing by 75 percent in many markets. Surprisingly, social media apps did not make it to the top three categories, despite India being the largest market for platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and LinkedIn. India, Vietnam and Indonesia had been touted as “hyper growth markets” by App Annie in a prior report. Last year, Indians clocked the most time spent on Android devices — 145 billion hours, well ahead of Brazil at 110 billion. ALSO READ: Social media, messaging apps usage increased by 394 percent in 2016: Report
India is possibly the most happening app market in Asia-Pacific right now. Asia, meanwhile, is expected to be the fastest-growing in the world, with its app economy reaching $3.2 trillion in 2021. It’ll be followed by the Americas and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) that are expected to grow to $1.7 trillion and $1 trillion respectively, App Annie revealed. For India specifically, the rise of mobile gaming will spur app spends, and generate revenues as high as $1.1 billion. “Mainstream apps like Candy Crush are a hit, but games from Indian publishers are also breaking into top download charts,” an earlier report stated.