In the recent stats gathered regarding the number of times applications (or apps) were downloaded from the digital distribution service called Google Play in 2016, India topped the list beating the U.S.A. at the second place and Brazil at the third place. The country raced to the top after being only the third in the previous year.
The report by global app analytics firm App Annie showed that over 6 billion downloads were made by Indian users from the service. India was also ahead of other countries in terms of the total amount of time spent on apps. Out of the collective 900 billion around the world, 150 billion hours were clocked in by Indians. Next came Brazil with 115 billion hours and then U.S.A. with 90 billion hours. This is a huge jump from India even as Android itself saw a 25% growth in the time allotted to apps from 2015. This averages to about 2 hours per day per Android phone user.
Speaking about the progress made by India, App Annie’s statement said, “India’s phenomenal progress (in downloads) over the past two years is even more impressive when considering its potential for further gains. In 2016, India surpassed the US as the second largest smartphone market due in large part to a rise in domestically produced smartphones. This is only the beginning, however, as India’s smartphone penetration is still below 30% and its overall economy is poised for massive growth.”
With such a booming market in the country for apps, Google is looking to expand more into it as the other biggest market China, has blocked Google. However, China was number one in iOS (Apple) app store downloads.
According to the data, Facebook was the most downloaded app in India in 2016 followed by WhatsApp Messenger and Truecaller. Candy Crush Soda was the most downloaded game. Dating app Tinder and professional networking platform LinkedIn also featured in this list. The report also showed Indians had the highest average number of shopping apps installed per user on their phones, good news for companies like Amazon who are betting big on India.
But on the flip side, India didn’t even feature in the top 10 countries when it came to the most revenue generation area. The top three spots went to Japan, United States and South Korea respectively.
