Indian apps on the rise; Chinese apps share fall to 29%

In the changing geopolitical climate, Chinese apps saw a setback as their market share plummeted to 29% in 2020 from 38% in 2019, a report by analytics firm Appsflyer said. Indian apps are dominating the market by leveraging this opportunity with 39% install volume in 2020 in the country.

Meanwhile, nations such as Russia, Israel, Germany, and the United States are in line to challenge second-place China, said the report.

"Yes, the Chinese share dropped because of the ban. But we have seen Indian companies taking a larger share year-on-year. In 2018, the share of Indian companies in top 200 installs was about 37 per cent," Sanjay Trisal, Country Manager for AppsFlyer India told The Indian Express.

About 85 percent of the app installs came from Tier-2 and 3 cities in India while the metros accounted for the rest, the report said. It further noted that focusing on regional content will be key to retaining users.

The pandemic came as a boon for apps focused on gaming and entertainment. OTT streaming players saw video consumption increase, mostly from the hinterland, according to the report.

The report observed that the pandemic also contributed to growth in digital payments and overall usage of financial apps, with finance representing one of the fastest-growing categories of 2020. However, food, travel and beverages related apps saw a decline, especially in the lockdown periods.

The year also saw uninstall rates increasing compared to 2019, which the report attributed to app size, stability, and data consumption by apps. It further highlighted that Indian users prefer apps that take up less space and are faster to use and that over 50 per cent of the uninstalls occur within the first day of installation itself.

The report also noted that while iOS continues to have better retention, the problem is that it contributes only between two to five percent of the market.

Categories such as travel, shopping picked up again in September, and in the pre-festive and festive seasons.

The report looked at a total of 7.3 billion overall installs for 4,519 apps.

Also read: Android 12 is code-named Snow Cone and it will come with new UI, one-hand mode

Also read: Indian smartphone market to rebound in 2021 after decline in 2020