How to Promote Your App and Monetize App Store Traffic from India?

India's technology and Internet industry are among the best in the world, and its smartphone market is growing rapidly. For the developers, the Indian mobile application market is a huge piece of cake that industry players are eyeing intensely, and how to seize the market has become a significant problem for developers to focus on.

According to ASO World's annual research, the popularity of smartphones in Asia, especially in India, has been the fastest-growing in the world in recent years, and with it, the app market has grown rapidly.

Currently, the Indian mobile app market is growing at speed of 43% annually, with entertainment apps went up by 188%. For most app developers, entering the Indian mobile app market is a key step to the success of their apps. How to profit from the Indian app market traffic and successfully promote your app will also become an important issue for many developers.

Click "Learn More" to drive your apps & games business with ASO World app promotion service now.

Which mobile app marketplaces are used by Indian locals?

India is one of the largest countries in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of population, and the development trend in recent years shows that the speed of digital development in both India and Indonesia is unignorable. According to official data, India's Internet users have reached 560 million, which accounts for 12% of global Internet users, and the current Internet penetration rate is around 41%. The potential and development value of the application market in such a basic environment will also be quite strong and intense.

India is the second-largest smartphone market in the world, with is about 346 million smartphone users in India by the end of 2019, with Android occupying nearly 96% of the market share, while Xiaomi and Samsung dominating the smartphone market, occupying over 50% of the market share. According to our research data, the main application market app used by Indian locals is Google Play.

What about the mobile app market in India?

With the insight from our annual data research report, before we make application promotion plan, let's take a look at the actual situation of mobile application market in India, and conduct sufficient market research first to find out the appropriate application promotion strategy.

1) Huge opportunity in the Indian mobile App market

The list of free apps and best-seller list of Indian game apps show the basic pattern of the contributes by China, US and India.

India has always been a relatively open game market, with a high dependence on overseas games. In addition, while most local Indian game developers used to develop games mainly for the US and European markets and later brought them to India, local Indian game companies now develop games mainly for local users. It is reported that by 2024, India will replace the United States as the world's largest developer center, with personnel mainly concentrated in the cities of Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai, so coupled with the European and American markets, the future competition in the Indian game market will become more and more intense for India companies that going overseas.

Indian free game apps are mainly concentrated in the genres of casual, racing and action. In addition to the regular casual games, the racing category can be considered the most featured game of the Indian game market. People often say that India is a nation of open, they extend the style of offline drivers to online, in which, motorcycle racing, train racing and other games are very popular with Indian players.

The best-selling game app is mainly focused on strategy, role-playing, betting and sports genres. Betting games are the most profitable games in the Indian market. Currently, the best-selling betting games in the Indian market are mainly based on solitaire and slot machines, and solitaire is mainly divided into three categories: Teen Patti category, Texas Hold'em poker and rummy. Based on the local culture of India, Indian players prefer Teen Patti games. There are dozens of Teen Patti games prevalent in the Indian market, but Teen Patti by local company Octro is the most successful one.

For sports games in the Indian market, Fantasy Sports handheld games are currently an area of great potential. Fantasy Sports dominates online sports games in India. This year, Ali launched a fantasy sports platform in India, and companies such as Dream 11, the largest local fantasy sports platform in India, have also launched fantasy sports products for mobile. In the future, there may be new surprises in the Indian market, including products that integrate e-sports with fantasy sports.

2) The statistics & facts of U.S. application in the Indian App market

India is the largest market of Facebook in the world except for the United States, 19% of the Indian population is using Facebook, the penetration rate is still low, and the future of Facebook in India is still full of great opportunities.

Tinder entered the Indian market in 2016 and is now considered the leader in the dating app category in the Indian market. Tinder provides a safe, personalized platform for everyone and is changing the way young people date in India. Some data shows that in India Tinder reaches 7.5 million daily punched users, and the user base is mainly young with an average age of 24 years old, living in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in India.

Facebook Inc. topped the free chart with its communication and social products such as Facebook Messenger, Facebook and Facebook Lite. IAC (InterActiveCorp) took the top spot in the best-seller list with its Tinder-led dating products.

3) Local mobile App development trend in India

In the free list of Indian non-game apps, India's local products occupy 35% of the market share, followed by countries such as China and the United States. In the past year, India's local video playing app MX Player, music streaming Wynk Music, e-commerce app Flipkart, etc. became the most popular products among Indians in their respective fields with their natural local advantages. In the best-seller list, the US and China together account for more than half of the list, with local Indian products occupying a smaller share.

The free chart is dominated by communication (ShareChat), finance (PhonePe), efficiency (MyJio) and e-commerce (Flipkart) among the local non-game apps. The best-seller list mainly includes music (Gaana Music), dating (Woo), entertainment (ALTBalaji) and other genres.

How to benefit from the app market traffic in India?

How to effectively use the Indian market environment to promote your app quickly, here are some suggestions provided by our team.

1)  App language localization expression

90% of APP users in India are accustomed to using local languages. To maximize market share in the Indian app market, APPs going abroad to India need to consider using multiple languages to convey brand and product service-related information. In the process of localization translation, it is recommended that in addition to the national official languages Hindi and English, the translation of local official languages such as Telugu, Marathi and Tamil should also be taken into consideration.

2) The direction and field of developing games

Indian free game app mainly focuses on the types of casual, racing and action, etc. The market environment formed by the crowd and the accompanying industry chain are the factors that need to take into consideration, the application areas that meet the local characteristics of India, and the effective use of the corresponding resources can accelerate the access of the market.

3) Indian sports game market

Fantasy Sports is currently an area with great potential. Fantasy Sports dominates the online sports games in India. In the future, including products such as e-sports and fantasy sports fusion, there may be new surprises in the Indian market.

4) The subject and content of the best-selling game app in India

Indian best-selling game themes include magic, elimination, war, cards, survival and some other types. For app developers, they can follow the mainstream and focus on these types of themes, or they can find another way to consider relatively cold themes such as restaurant simulation, piracy, city simulation, etc., which may have unexpected gains.

5) Video streaming applications in the Indian application market

According to data, India ranks first in the world in the number of hours spent on video streaming applications; dating applications are also very trending in the Indian market. With the increasing level of education and financial independence of young people in India, especially women, and the increase in digital penetration of the country as a whole, online dating products are becoming increasingly popular in India.