India saw significant growth in internet and smartphone usage in 2016. Internet penetration reached 19% of the population, up 31% from the previous year. Mobile internet users grew to 232 million in 2015 and were projected to increase by 21% through 2019. Digital initiatives like Digital India were expected to drive further expansion of internet access. E-commerce shifted heavily to mobile app platforms, with companies drawing up to 80% of their traffic from mobile. Digital advertising grew rapidly as well, increasing 45% from 2014 to 2015. Social media engagement also rose in India, with time spent on social media averaging almost 3 hours per day.

1. Key Digital Numbers and
Trends in India
2016

2. Internet Penetration in India
2016

3. India trumps USA with
close to 300 million
Internet Users with 19%
penetration with year-
on-year growth at 31%.
India is expected to reach 560
million internet users by 2019.

4. The TV viewership in India
in close to 850 million and
Internet penetration at 350
million.
The TV penetration will grow to
3% year on year where as
Internet penetration will grow
by 18% during the same period

5. Mobile Internet Penetration in
India
2016

6. As of December 2015
there are close to 232
million mobile internet
users in India.
Mobile internet users in India
will grow at 21 percent from
2014 to 2019

7. There are close to 200
million internet
enabled smartphones
in India.
The reasons of growth are:

8. India is expected to reach
30% global milestone in
2016 when total
smartphone users will be
close to 250 million and
India will beat USA to
become 2nd largest
smartphone market in the
world.

9. Digital Initiatives in India
2016

10. The overall investment for the Digital India initiative is
estimated to be around INR 100,000 Cr for the existing
schemes and the additional INR 13,000 Cr for the new
initiatives.

11. Some of the world’s biggest tech
giants are gearing up to capitalize
on the Digital India Initiative.
Google, Microsoft and Facebook
have expressed their interest in
providing high – speed internet
technologies.
High Speed Internet Access:
1. Google – Project Loon
2. Facebook – Solar Powered
Drones
3. Microsoft–Involved unused TV
spectrum – ‘White Space
Technology’

12. Mobile Apps Domination in India
2016

13. In 2016, 12 Billion apps are
supposed to be downloaded in
India, more than 7 times the
number of apps downloaded in
2012 which was 1.59 Billion at a
CAGR of 79%.
This is an average of 17 apps per person
where 3 are paid apps compared to a
global average of 26 apps with 5 paid
apps. 90% of the apps downloaded in
India are the free apps.

14. Android has 85% market
share with iOS at 10% and
windows at close to 5%
market share. 18.
Games apps (64%) were the
most popular category
followed by Social and
Communication apps (15%)
and next are the music
streaming apps.

15. E-Commerce will shift to
Mobile App Platforms
A major lifestyle
E-Commerce company
(Myntra) draws close to
80% of its traffic and 60%
of its sales on mobile app.
By year 2016 this will grow to 90%
traffic post which web portals may
cease to exist.

16. Digital Media Buying in India
2016

17. The digital advertising
industry grew from Rs.
4350/- crores in 2014 to
Rs. 6250/- crores in 2015
a growth of around 45%
projected to grow to Rs.
8400/- crores in 2016
with 44% increase year
on year.

18. The E-Commerce industry has posted a growth of 338 percent
in ad spending, making it top digital spender with INR 495
crores ahead of 2013 spender which was telecom.

19. The spending on search dropped
from 38 percent of the total digital ad
spend in 2013 to 30 percent in 2015
where as spending on display slipped
from 29 percent in 2014 to 23
percent in 2015.
2014
2015
On the other hand, better ad
performance and greater scope of
reach and engagement on mobile,
social and video had been
instrumental in improving their share
to 14 percent, 18 percent and 12
percent respectively in 2015.

20. Key Media Trends
2016

21. Native Advertising – The
blending of contextually
relevant messages with
mobile/app site content is
estimated to result in a 33
percent increase in the
engagement time and give 57
percent higher CTR.
For marketers, native advertising
formats have also resulted in a 9
percent higher lift to brand affinity
and 18 percent higher lift for
purchase intent response than
traditional banner ads.

22. Remarketing and Retargeting to
attract customers
Remarketing helps advertisers
target users who have earlier
visited the company website or
the mobile app. This has resulted
in delivering customized higher
performing ads by adding
custom parameters to the
advertisers website.

23. Analytics based Programmatic
Buying
Real time bidding and
programmatic buying are
becoming hot favourite topics
for intense discussions.
Depending on the kind of
demand the search generates,
the back end software and
algorithm alters the investment
of advertisers per bid. This
results in generating a better
return on marketing investment.

24. Social Media in India
2016

25. With almost 21 percent internet
penetration and 13 percent
penetration of social media,
India continues to be the fastest
growing market for social media
in the world. 45 percent of
India’s total mobile users are
active on social media.
India spends around 2 hours and 57
minutes, on an average, on social
media everyday.

26. Rich media content has the
strongest pull in social media.
1. Tweets with visual content
receive 18 percent more clicks
and 150 percent more re-
tweets.
2. Facebook posts with visual
content result in 87 percent of
the total interaction on the
website.
3. The number of videos from
people and brands and expected
to increase by 36 % in 2016.

27. Mobile advertising become
a major contributor to social
media revenues
90% of users access their social
media accounts through the mobile
devices. The total mobile ad revenue
for Facebook accounts for 66% in Q4
2015
Globally, Twitter has about 80%
active monthly users coming from
Mobile Devices of which 8% reside in
India.

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