Indian apps strike gold on the back of Chinese apps ban: Report
Ban on many Chinese fashion e-commerce platforms such as Shein and Club Factory has also been great for Indian online shopping apps
Its indeed a good time to be a Indian mobile app publisher, especially in segments like short video social, messaging platforms, gaming, lifestyle (clothing and accessories) and shopping as the ban on Chinese apps had dramatically reduced its market share. In May 2020, 50% of the top 10 publishers in the country were Chinese across all segments, just a month before the ban, according to App Annie data. On the other hand, Indian publishers had only a 20% share, Business Standard reported on Thursday.
Indian apps takeover
What started out as an interim ban by the government on 59 Chinese apps, including the highly popular TikTok, which took on Facebook with its short videos and had over 199 million subscribers in March 2020, ended with many being permanently banned in January this year.
However, once the Chinese apps were out of the picture, Indian app publishers started gaining a larger portion of the market share. As of September till date, 60% of the top ten apps on App Annie are owned by Indian publishers.
MX Taka Tak, Moj, ShareChat, Josh and Public are among the top ten Indian publishers operating in this space.
Popular Chinese gaming app PUBG which had 34 million Indians playing daily, with downloads of more than 175 million at its peak was also part of government’s ban. However, that hasn’t changed anything with Chinese apps continuing to dominate the scene in the top 10 ranks. So far, only Ludo King from Gametion is the only Indian game in top ten list at the no.1 spot based on App Annie. But the Chinese have been replaced by games from Hong Kong, UK, Switzerland and other countries.
The good news however is Indian gaming apps are coming of age. According to 42Matters, Indian gaming publishers now account for a reasonable 4% (around 19, 323) of the global gaming apps on Google Play Store.
It added that Gametion whose four gaming apps have been downloaded for 629 million times. While its nearest words mobile has been downloaded more than 500 times with 27 gaming apps.
Ban on many Chinese fashion e-commerce platforms such as Shein and Club Factory has also been great for Indian online shopping apps.
Myntra, Snapdeal, Ajio and Meesho among others are part of the 70% of the top 10 apps based on data from App Anie.