India tops in Q1 app installs with 4.8B downloads

Indians downloaded about 4.8 billion applications on their mobile phones in the first three months of this year, helped by growth in smartphone ownership and plummeting data prices, according to data published by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

India was the top country in terms of new installs, followed by the United States at 3 billion downloads.

The top 10 most downloaded applications were TikTok, WhatsApp, Like, Hotstar, Facebook, Messenger, SHAREit, Helo, MX Player and UC Browser – showing that the Indian app ecosystem is dominated by American and Chinese Internet companies.

MXPlayer was the only Indian company on that list. MXPlayer is owned by Times Internet, a digital arm of the Times Group, which publishes the Economic Times.

“The growth in app installs we're tracking in India is closely tied to the growth in new smartphone owners there, particularly Android users,” said Randy Nelson, Head of Mobile Insights at Sensor Tower. “Since the growth is closely tied to new smartphone users — that will be the largest factor in its stability.”

Nelson said, based on research other than Sensor Tower’s, “I have seen compounded annual growth rate of 15% posited through 2022.”


WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger are all part of Facebook’s family of applications. TikTok and Helo are owned by China’s ByteDance, while Like is owned by China’s Bigo Technology. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba runs UC Browser and SHAREit was founded in Beijing by Michael Qiu. Hotstar is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

Nelson said app downloads have been growing steadily in India over the past five years, with a sharp increase seen mid- to late-2016, pointing to a period of intense price wars among telecom companies after the launch of Reliance Jio’s mobile services .

“Number of downloads is a continuation on the trend of more accessible data pricing, which has grown the demand for online entertainment amongst Indians,” said Kieley Taylor, managing partner, global head of social at GroupM.

“The growing mobile connectedness of India has only bolstered the desire for companies to bring solutions to the country and increased their ability to scale these solutions across the country,” Taylor said. An Indian Internet company could still play a key role given its richer understanding of cultural mores and traditions but needs to do it quickly, she said, as people — once they are on a super app platform — seldom move to another platform.

Games, social, entertainment, tools and photography apps were the top categories that were downloaded, according to Sensor Tower.

“There is a huge and vibrant potential market for online video streaming in our country with over 400 million smartphones that is growing at more than 50% each year,” said Karan Bedi, CEO at MX Player. “We will continue to consistently invest in building a bigger premium original content library.”

"India is a key strategic market for ByteDance and we consider India as an opportunity for us to empower the existing and much awaited 200-400 million first-time internet users to use our platforms for creative expression," it said in an email statement.

Facebook, Alibaba and Hotstar did not reply to queries seeking comment. Bigo Technology’s Like declined to comment.

India is a source of new user growth for Internet companies even though average revenue per user is much lower than what American companies make in developed markets. China is shut for Facebook and Google.

ByteDance, Alibaba and Bigo Technology, which are established players in China, have been looking to other markets for growth. India, with rising disposable incomes and a young populace, has presented itself as a first go-to market essential for global dominance.