India's shopping, video, games app users to increase by 60% in 2019: Report

Mobile applications in the category of shopping, video and games are expected to see 60 per cent more users by 2019, according to a report published by Foxconn and Mediatek funded apps distribution firm Momagic.

"Shopping, Video and Games Categories of Apps in India are going through an explosive growth as data prices have crashed and data speeds have increased considerably in the last few quarters. We will continue to see this growth in 2019 with a jump of 60 per cent users in this segment according to our study," Momagic Technologies Founder and CEO Arun Gupta told PTI.

The report based on data compiled from around 2 million mobile phone users showed 94 per cent surge in demand for news applications followed by 80 per cent rise in social network apps and 52 per cent increase in games category in January-March period of 2018 compared to October-December period of 2017.

"India creates one of the largest news content across tens of languages which is consumed by users across age groups. News related apps continue to outperform other segments and is expected to grow further, thereby making it clear that in the near future content is going to be a clear winner in the Ad tech sector," Gupta said.

Momagic works with mobile phone companies that have cumulative user base of around 126 million, according to the company.

On an average, an Indian smartphone user usually has 50 apps, including pre-installed apps equally distributed in devices used by men and women, the report said.

Momagic's data analysis platform users statistics obtained from pre-installed application to which mobile phone users agree to, a company spokesperson said.

The report clubbed total users in three categories -- new users, social app and game app users -- for the study.

It found that social app users are likely to use datings apps.

"They (social media app users) are not only good at social networking on the internet, but might enjoy outdoor activities since they often check weather information," the report said.

Momagic study found a huge group of social app users drive and have many traffic tool apps within their handset for them to drive smarter on the roads such as GPS navigation, parking information, highway helper.

According to the report, social media app users enjoy outdoor activities and travelling as they pay attention to the weather status and hence may install weather forecast apps to get weather and air quality information, timely.

Based on data trend, the report interpreted that most of the game user might be a parent who share their mobile phone with their children and comic apps on their mobile phone for entertainment.

"Probability of them installing beauty apps is seen to be more, to catch up on beauty information timely. Also probability of them having camera app with popular photo filters, is high," the report said.

New users of mobile application prefer to install food and drink applications followed by apps in heath and fitness category, auto segment, weather, medical and parenting.

The report predicts average app usage time in India will grow by 90 per cent in 2019 from 2 hours in 2017, app downloads 153 per cent and digital advertising 25 per cent from 73 per cent and 13 per cen in 2017.

"Digital ad spending in India is expected grow by 26 per cent in 2018 and 28 per cent by 2019," the report said.