HIGHLIGHTS:
A report reveals
that Indians spend almost 70 per cent of the time on apps like Facebook and
WhatsApp, and music and entertainment apps
On an average, a
user in India spends 200 minutes a day on mobile apps, lower than the US
average of 300 minutes a day.
BENGALURU:
Indians use
their mobile phones most for social communication and entertainment. The
average mobile internet user in India spends almost 70 per cent of the time on
apps like Facebook and WhatsApp, and music and entertainmentapps. This is much more than
by people in the US, who visit these apps for only 50 per cent of the time they
spend on the mobile phone, a report released by investment firm Omidyar Network claims. Americans
spend a good amount of time also on news, commerce and gaming.
On an average, a user in India spends 200 minutes a day on mobile apps, lower than the US average of 300 minutes a day. Of the 70 per cent of the time Indians are employed on social and entertainment, 38 per cent is spent only on social media giant Facebook and its family of apps - Whatsapp, and Instagram. This dominance of the Facebook family in India is far greater than in the US, where their usage is only 18 per cent of a user's time.
Roopa Kudva, partner and MD of Omidyar Network India, says this suggests a lack of region focussed platforms in India for social communication and is an opportunity for startups. "Currently, Whatsapp and Facebook constitute 95 per cent of social apps in India. This is just 55 per cent in the US, where people spend their time on other local apps too. Similarly, in entertainment, YouTube accounts for 47 per cent of entertainment app usage in India, against only 17 per cent in the US. As the cost of data goes down, there is big opportunity for entrepreneurs to use this space. ShareChat is one app which is doing well in India, with 8 million downloads," she said.
ShareChat allows users to share videos, jokes, GIFs, audio songs and funny images from India in Indian languages.
The Omidyar
Network report, done with the objective of determining how to get the next half
billion Indian internet users, was put together based on data gathered from
Indus OS, analytics company ComScore, Facebook, and netMarketShare. Indus OS is
a vernacular operating system which has 7 million users in India. The analysis
was done on more than 3 lakh Indians distributed across metros, and tier 1, 2,
3 towns and beyond during the period April-June 2017.
The report noted that the next half billion of internet users would come from
all districts of the country. Women are
seen to be a key segment to gain. Currently, women are 36 per cent less likely
to own a mobile phone, and women comprise only 35 per cent of mobile internet
users and 25 per cent of Facebook users. Reticence in using the internet by
women, lack of confidence to transact online, and lack of indigenous apps for
social media and communication are seen to be the key challenges that
entrepreneurs will face to capture the next segment of internet users in India.
Source:
