Mobile is the primary device for users and India is already leading in it. While India is the fastest growing smartphone country in Asia for Q1 2014, activities over the device have increased. According to the recent Ericsson Consumer report, the average time spent on apps has increased 63 percent in the past 2 years, and the time spent on smartphones has increased 20 percent.
This also means good news for marketers. While the device throws a new set of challenges for marketers, a new report by Opera Mediaworks on the State of Mobile Advertising states – “India is the single-most powerful driver of the Asia-Pacific market, with mobile-ad impression volume growing 260% since July 2013. This is primarily due to the rapid, country-wide shift from feature phones to smart devices, which is dominated almost entirely by the Android platform (41.7% share vs. a paltry 0.4% for iOS). “
The first India focused Opera Mediaworks’ report provides data on device adoption, ad types and mobile consumption patterns in the sub-continent, among other things. The below listed 8 data points are the major findings of the report:
1. India is still one of the global leaders in retaining old feature phones but rapid transformation to smart devices. Android devices dominate the market but iOS still struggling.
2. Android followed by feature phones in market share is the clear leader in impressions served and revenue production. Interestingly, iOS with a fairly small market share is producing over 2% of total revenue on just 0.5% of total ad impressions.
3. In both global and India markets, social sites and apps lead the mix. However, India shows a significantly higher use of mobile app store sites (most with significant mobile games catalogs), gaming and education-oriented sites.
4. Simple banner ads dominate but rich-media creative is generating over 26% of revenue with only 3.2% of impressions. Positive signs!
5. Advertisers in the market focus on selling games and mobile devices, at 25.5% and 22.7%, respectively. Classifieds are also an important part of the ad economy.
6. 18-24 age group accounts for over 60% of all users, while males make up 82% of the mobile audience in India.
7. Mobile-ad engagement is higher on weekends, with a slightly lower tendency to engage at mid-week. Over 64% of users access mobile sites and apps on a weekly basis.
8. Over 60% of impressions are served to 21.6% users classified as “frequent”, accessing 6 or 7 days per week.
According to Mahi de Silva, CEO of Opera Mediaworks, advertisers and publishers that can deliver rich user experiences on mobile sites and apps in categories – News & Information, Arts & Entertainment and Business, among others are going to be successful in India.
The market continues to grow aggressively and is rapidly transitioning to advanced smartphone platforms led by Android. This also throws up tremendous opportunities and challenges for mobile sites and applications to be consistently focused on delivering richer experiences.
This article is published with permission.
