Lockscreen platform Glance had 140 million active users in India in Q1CY2021, according to Counterpoint Research Quarterly Mobile Application Tracker. Customers of big smartphone brands like Xiaomi (including POCO), Samsung, vivo and OPPO form a majority of Glance’s active user base.
Glance, which is owned by the InMobi Group, delivers content to the lockscreen of Android-based smartphones. This has helped Glance establish itself as the first touchpoint for millions of users to interact with their devices. Additionally, being a pre-installed feature in some of the highest-selling smartphones in India has enabled the platform to reach close to a quarter of all smartphones in the country, said the report.
Glance uses artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver personalized content via video stories and live streaming across categories like news, entertainment, tech, sports, fashion and travel. This ensures users stay updated about trends and developments in their areas of interest without having to actively search for them. The platform has also been working towards penetrating the vernacular content market in the country, given that the vast majority of Indian smartphone users are not native English speakers.
“Glance is a platform that bridges the gap between new content and millions of smartphone users with its intuitive user interface,” said Research Analyst Arushi Chawla. “It comes as a pre-installed feature, as against an app that needs to be downloaded. This makes it easy to use. It offers content in eight regional languages, which is significant value addition in a linguistically and culturally diverse nation like India,” she added.
According to Counterpoint Research Quarterly Mobile Application Tracker, Glance has a strong presence in the sub-$250 smartphone segment, which covers 80 per cent of the Indian smartphone user base. The research also found that 70 per cent of newly-launched smartphones in the sub-$250 segment now come pre-installed with the platform.
“As India’s smartphone market matures, more users are moving from the sub-$100, entry-level segment to the $100-$300 segment, which is not only affordable but also offers value for money. Moreover, hardware features are no longer differentiators and most original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are looking at software and overall user experience to differentiate their products. In this play of feature-based selling points, a platform like Glance has a crucial role,” Senior Research Analyst Pavel Naiya said.
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