Chinese apps crash to 29% penetration in India post ban
Interestingly, the ban has also lowered the overall smartphone usage in the country with daily time spent coming down to 3 hours 14 minutes as of August from 3 hours 54 minutes in April and 3 hours 22 minutes pre-covid in January, according to Nielsen analysis
PremiumThe ban on apps of Chinese origin by the Indian government has brought their penetration down from 81% to 29% in the country, according to a latest report by data measurement firm Nielsen. The figure represents the percentage of users on these services per week.
Interestingly, the ban has also lowered the overall smartphone usage in the country with daily time spent coming down to 3 hours 14 minutes as of August from 3 hours 54 minutes in April and 3 hours 22 minutes pre-covid in January, according to Nielsen analysis. This drop is seen across all audiences, with those in non-metros spending 5% lesser time as compared to April, with the 15-24 and the 25-34 age groups spending 7% and 6% lesser time respectively.
In June, the Indian government had banned 59 Chinese apps, including Bytedance’s TikTok, Alibaba’s UC Browser, and others on grounds of national security and privacy concerns. It later banned 47 more Chinese apps, that were functioning as clones of the 59 banned apps.
The ban has caused an estimated dent of Rs. 120 crore for the top 100 influencers, according to findings of Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB). Influencers with 1 million followers could easily make up to Rs. 35,000 per month and with twice the following up to Rs. 50,000, Mint had earlier reported.
To be sure, competing apps have tried to take advantage of the ban. Homegrown platform Chingari, for instance, had announced a talent hunt show which could help top content creators earn up to Rs. 1 crore from a prize pool of Rs. 2.8 crore.
“The advertising market for these apps was pretty small so I don’t see that as a big loss. It will be in terms of user engagement that other apps will benefit," said Karan Taurani, research analyst at Elara Capital Ltd.
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