Google Play, over its decade of operation, has seen over 2.5 billion people in over 190 countries use it every month to discover apps, games and digital content. And in this, India has transformed into an app-centric country over the past decade, consistently emerging as one of the top app and game downloaders across the globe.
Indian apps and games saw a 200% increase in monthly active users and an 80% increase in consumer spending on the Play Store in 2021 compared to 2019. Apart from that, users outside the country also spent 150% more time on Indian apps in 2021 compared to 2019.
According to Aditya Swamy Director, Play Partnerships, Google, “India has reached a major milestone of 100 unicorns, and it is phenomenal to see a significant portion of them as app-powered businesses.
He said the growth in India has been significant especially in the last couple of years as there have been apps in categories such as education, payments, healthcare, entertainment and games that testify of rapid growth. He gave the examples of HealthifyMe, Pratilipi and Doubtnut, all of which worked well. “There has also been great momentum in gaming. Ludo King became one of the first Indian games to cross 500 million downloads. PlaySimple Games is another great example of a local game studio thriving in global markets .”
Google to double down on India for app innovation
Stating that India is now a major center for global development, the Google executive said the country will play a vital role in shaping the global app ecosystem over the next decade.
“India today is in a unique position to become a global app innovation hub and there is huge potential for Indian startups across the country – regardless of size and geography – to thrive. in the global app ecosystem,” he said and added that the tech giant will continue to invest in local initiatives to solve local problems.
Google recently announced the Google Startup School India to enable 10,000 startups in Tier 2 and 3 cities. It also offered Google for Startups Accelerator – India Women Founders to specifically help female founders in the country.
Google said it will ensure Play remains a safe and reliable platform for everyone to find the right apps for them. “User security will remain a top priority for us and we will continue to work with developers to help them deliver the best quality user experiences in the evolving privacy and security landscape.”
For the record, India had the second highest number of app downloads in the world, with over 27 billion downloads in 2021. The Indian app market is expected to reach $2.3 billion in revenue by 2026.
