Indian has become global market for mobile players in past few years as all companies are eying to tap enormous opportunity emerging from Indian consumers. Despite connectivity issues in most of the region, we saw massive adoption of Internet users through mobile devices. All these developments are key factors for growth of Mobile Apps market in India. 9Apps, one of the leading player in Indian market also plans to gain their market reach through fast and best mobile application platform. Mr. Ebrahim Popat, Country Manager, 9Apps shares his plans and solutions with DT for Indian market.
Q: How do you see overall Mobile App market in India?
A: With a huge untapped mobile internet population, Asia is the future of mobile internet market and India is an important player with a population of over 1.2 billion. India adds the highest number of internet users per year, vs any other country in the world. Over 60% of consumers access the internet via their mobile devices — 213 million people by end of June to be exact. But, as is highlighted by our annual report, an average Indian user installs no more than 32 apps (lower than the world average). Out of this at least 7 are gaming apps. As high-end smartphones become more popular and prevalent, this number is likely to go up further. Going forward, poor connections could impact users’ willingness to try out new apps and thus hamper the growth of the app market. WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and UC Browser remain the top apps of 2015 whereas Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and Paytm remain the most popular ecommerce apps. The Indian app market has ample room to expand as the country’s smartphone penetration remains low and payment infrastructure remains underdeveloped.
Q: What are the fuelling factors for the tremendous growth of this market?
A: The steady growth of app downloads is attributed to affordability and popularity of smartphones as well as growing consuming power. As of now, there are roughly over 3 billion Android and iOS apps. Less than 30,000 have seen more than one million download each. According to industry stats, the global mobile apps market is expected to reach US$ 54.89 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 16.2 percent from 2014 to 2020. The fastest growth will come from the APAC region, especially India and China as these two countries are witnessing the fastest adoption of smart phones and growth in mobile internet. As per Future Business Models & Ecosystem Analysis 2012-2016, users are predicted to download more than 66 billion mobile apps per year by 2016, more than double the 31 billion apps installed in 2011. The advance of multi-screen access and the shift to multi-tasking are also driving impressive growth. The report reveals that, while smartphones will continue to account for the majority of mobile app downloads, tablets, such as the iPad will account for one in every four apps installed by 2016.
Q: What according to you is the major challenge for this industry?
A: While the Indian app market is on a high-growth trajectory, it continues to face lot of difficulties, including connectivity, local online payment issues and lack of effective promotional channels and local app trend insights. Effective addressal to these issues will attract more talent to the sector. The app development industry has undergone rapid expansion and is flush with talent in India. What is missing is the right platform for these developers to showcase their talent, get exposure for their apps and connect with fellow developers.
9Apps Trends represents the app market movements of millions of users as 9Apps is able to process and interpret the huge data generated via over 18 million daily app distributions. For instance, 9Apps Index, an index number originally created by 9Apps (ranged 1~100), is based on the massive download data from 9Apps Store which reveals how often a particular app is downloaded relative to the total number of apps downloaded on 9Apps Store. Apart from trends, it also offers the best-in-class data analytics products & services and insightful app data reports to developers.
Q: How do you see the adoption of 9Apps among Indian consumers?
A: 9Apps marked its entry into India with an office in Mumbai in June 2014. Today, 9Apps is one of the most popular Android apps store with 140 million monthly active users worldwide. 9Apps and 9Game have also reached 8.5 million Daily Active Users (DAUs) with over 18 million daily aggregate downloads of apps and games. We have an active user community across China, India and other emerging markets which have helped us achieve this mark. 9Apps & 9Game give Android users an ideal alternative to download apps and games with no need for account registration. We have not just an abundant and varied app repository but also a huge collection of region-specific apps for each market – that’s one of the factors contributed to our uptrend. While the popularity we’re enjoying also speaks to the opportunity for our app developer partners as they stand a better chance to reach out to more users. Our effort has been to provide quality content and services and promote localized and relevant apps in each country we operate in.
Q. What are your plans for Indian market?
A: 9Apps is focused on apps relevant for the Indian market – compact, localised and in regional languages. Our aim is not just to acquire more users but to engage with them deeply. 9Apps is optimized for local network conditions to guarantee a downloading experience to users even if they are in bad connection. Mobile payment is a big issue for India users. 9Apps has tied up with telecom players so that all in-app purchases are added to your monthly mobile bill, even if users do not have a credit card. We want to showcase our deep commitment to India market. Last year we launched our ‘Fundraiser Program’ under which we have committed Rs 10 lakh to not-for-profit organization Prayas for education of girl child in India.
Q. How do you help developers in building right application as per their target audiences?
