Google Play, in its decade of operations, has seen more than 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-first country in the past decade, consistently emerging as one of the top downloaders for apps and games across the world.
Indian apps and games saw a 200% increase in active monthly users and an 80% increase in consumers spends on Play Store in 2021 as 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 crossed a major milestone of 100 unicorns, and it’s phenomenal to see a significant portion of these as businesses powered by apps.
He said the growth in India has been great, especially in the past two years, as there have been apps across categories such as education, payments, health, entertainment, and gaming witness stupendous growth. He gave the examples of HealthifyMe, Pratilipi and Doubtnut, which have all done well. "There has been great momentum in gaming too. Ludo King became one of the first Indian games to cross 500 million downloads. PlaySimple Games is another great example of a local gaming studio thriving in global markets."
Google to double down on India for app innovation
Stating that India is now a large global developer hub, the Google executive said the country will play a critical role in the evolution of the global app ecosystem in the coming decade.
"India is today uniquely positioned to become a leading hub for global app innovation and there is tremendous 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 challenges.
Google recently announced the Google Startup School India to enable 10,000 startups in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. It also came up with Google for Startups Accelerator - India Women Founders to specifically help women founders in the country.
Google said it will ensure that Play stays a safe and trustworthy platform for everyone to find the right apps for their needs. "User safety will remain a top priority for us and we will continue to work with developers to help them deliver the best quality experiences to users in the evolving privacy and security landscape."
For the record, India had the second-highest app downloads in the world, with more than 27 billion downloads in 2021. The Indian app market is expected to grow to $2.3 billion in revenue by 2026.
