MUMBAI: As smartphone penetration takes off in India, so too is app usage with financial, entertainment and messaging apps driving a 43% increase in usage year-on-year.
A new study by Yahoo's Flurry Analytics unit, entitled State Of The App Nation in India, revealed that India's mobile revolution is driving more Indians to use apps as part of their everyday routine, the Economic Times reported.
At 43%, India’s growth in app usage year-on-year is well ahead of the global average of 11% as the smartphone market matures in several Western markets.
The global research project covered data from more than 940,000 applications from 2.1bn devices around the world, including 58,000 apps across 147m smartphone devices in India.
It found the increased usage also reflects the massive growth in mobile and internet penetration that India has been experiencing in the last few years with millions of new mobile customer annually.
According to the research, messaging and social media apps are driving the most engagement among Indians, with time spent up 52% in India compared to an average 44% globally.
Indians are also using their smartphones for entertainment: The top three app growth categories for India are music, media and entertainment with usage soaring 188% year on year.
The Indian government's push for digitised services, particularly digital payments, may be reflected in an uptick in popularity for business and finance apps (up 176%), with utilities and productivity apps also growing fast (up 99%).
India's government recently announced, alongside Google India, that it will invest in skills upgrades for an estimated two million mobile app developers in the country as well as improving digital payment security.
Google also said it plans to increase internet usage among women in rural India as well as skills development for developers and small and medium businesses.
A new study by Yahoo's Flurry Analytics unit, entitled State Of The App Nation in India, revealed that India's mobile revolution is driving more Indians to use apps as part of their everyday routine, the Economic Times reported.
At 43%, India’s growth in app usage year-on-year is well ahead of the global average of 11% as the smartphone market matures in several Western markets.
The global research project covered data from more than 940,000 applications from 2.1bn devices around the world, including 58,000 apps across 147m smartphone devices in India.
It found the increased usage also reflects the massive growth in mobile and internet penetration that India has been experiencing in the last few years with millions of new mobile customer annually.
According to the research, messaging and social media apps are driving the most engagement among Indians, with time spent up 52% in India compared to an average 44% globally.
Indians are also using their smartphones for entertainment: The top three app growth categories for India are music, media and entertainment with usage soaring 188% year on year.
The Indian government's push for digitised services, particularly digital payments, may be reflected in an uptick in popularity for business and finance apps (up 176%), with utilities and productivity apps also growing fast (up 99%).
India's government recently announced, alongside Google India, that it will invest in skills upgrades for an estimated two million mobile app developers in the country as well as improving digital payment security.
Google also said it plans to increase internet usage among women in rural India as well as skills development for developers and small and medium businesses.
Data sourced from Economic Times, Business World; additional content by Warc staff
