- The third edition of the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem Report 2020 says that the smartphone user base in India will cross the 700 million mark by 2023.
The third edition of the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem Report 2020 was launched by GroupM. The theme for this report this year revolves around how mobile is a platform larger than digital platforms. The report also explores various trends affecting consumers and marketers and explains why it is necessary to go beyond the traditional realms of digital marketing to drive business and brand results.
It analyzes where mobile marketing stands today, what brought us here and what holds the future. Marketing to the most efficient way for a generation of mobile users is only possible with a true understanding of these users and the platforms which they use so omnipresently.
The web user base is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 10 percent from 2019 to 2023, according to the report.
Today, 99 percent of internet user base use the internet on their smartphone across both rural and urban areas in India.
As the number of mobile phones increased, the amount of time spent on mobile phones also increased to 3.7 hours per day, which is a 25 percent jump compared to data from 2017.
With 502 million smartphone users, India is in 2nd place in the world. The smartphone user base has grown by 15 percent compared to 2018 and is expected to cross the level of 650 million-700 million by 2023.
The report includes articles from industry experts such as Sandeep Bhushan, Director & Head, Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook; Madhubanti Banerjee, Director, Effectiveness of Marketing, Nielsen Media, South Asia; Gulshan Verma, SVP & Head, Client & Agency, Hotstar; Sameer Singh, Vice President, Monetization, TikTok India; Niraj Ruparel, Head–Mobile, Mindshare; Amit Relan, C. Including metrics assessment, brand protection, mobile entertainment to gaming and voice/audio marketing, these pieces of opinion including industry leaders should help marketers understand the content, measurement and brand gaps.
“Given the magnitude of importance that mobile marketing has for all the brands, the marketers need to be well aware of trends and changes in the environment and are able to harness the opportunities available. Our goal is to highlight these trends and opportunities with the study of ecosystems, some of which have already become relevant in 2019 and are ready to form critical elements of mobile marketing campaigns in the coming years. We are hopeful about this report serving as a guide for marketers, identifying key areas of focus, their challenges and helping them discern what they need to expect from the dynamic mobile ecosystem”, said Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India on the announcement.
Key highlights from the report:
Ephemeral Content: Ephemeral Content refers to the type of media content which disappears after a short duration. Due to its temporary nature, this type of content forces the creator to become more creative and spontaneous and hence improves the quality of content.
AI: Close to 80 percent of the large corporate houses have adopted some of the other forms of machine learning and artificial intelligence to build new efficient systems which go hand in hand with their core business.
E-Wallets: In October 2019, India’s local UPI (Unified Payments Interface) network reached the 1,000 million user mark, making it one of the world’s fastest embraced payment gateways, contributing to a massive rise in social commerce.
Gaming: In India, there are roughly 250 million smartphone gamers, spending about 60 minutes every day playing mobile games.
OTT: Having over 30 OTT providers and 10 music streaming apps in operation catering to diverse entertainment and media demands, Indians are susceptible to consuming content across a variety of digital formats and platforms.
Original Content on OTT: OTT players invest heavily in the creation of original content and its distribution which clocks up to Rs. 2.5 billion.
Prasanth Kumar, CEO, South Asia GroupM said: “India will continue to see an upward trend this year in mobile ad spending growth. Cheaper data tariffs, the exponential growth of mobile entertainment and a variety of smartphones have led to the emergence of the country’s’ mobile-first-consumption’ users.” “India is a diverse and mobile-first country, and this will further boost mobile advertising growth compared to digital advertising. Content availability in regional Indian languages is increasing mobile Internet use in India. We’ve also seen increasing use of e-commerce apps on mobile phones in recent years.
Influencer Driven Content: Marketers believe influencer marketing can help them interactively communicate with the consumer and thus raise ad spending by 80 percent next year.
Video: With consumer attention spans being short, advertising content in a short format is key. Today, India is the sixth-largest market in video ad consumption.
Vernacular: In the next five years, 90 percent of new internet users are expected to prefer regional languages to Internet access.
Voice: 25 percent of India’s search queries are by voice commands. In comparison to other forms of advertising, 38 percent of consumers who have engaged in voice ads find it less interfering.
MarTech: The advertisement process is made more efficient from CRM through programmatic ad purchasing, automation, and artificial intelligence. Nearly 80 percent of large corporations have in some way adopted machine learning; 30 percent of new-gen start-ups.
Current mobile landscape statistics:
• India has a 451 million active smartphone user base, while internet penetration is more than 36%.
• Today, 99 percent of users use the internet on their mobile phones across both rural and urban areas in India.
• Smartphones have also become more affordable, with cheaper data plans, allowing for wider access.
• India has 1.16 billion mobile subscribers out of a population of 1.3-1.4 billion, which includes 700 million unique mobile subscribers.
• As the number of mobile phones increased, the amount of time spent on mobile phones also increased to 3.7 hours per day, which is a 25 percent jump compared to data from 2017.
• Data in India are currently priced at USD 0.26 for 1 GB, compared with the global average of USD 8.53 per GB.
• India’s smartphone market shipped a whopping 46.6 million units in the third quarter of 2019, fuelled by releases of new models, online sales and price adjustments.
• Consumers downloaded a worldwide record 204B apps in 2019, spending nearly $120B which is 2x of 2016 expenditures.
• Among all active mobile internet users in India, which stands at approximately 451 million, entertainment is the purpose of a whopping 84%.
You can find the whole report here.
